
('o|)yiii>lil X" 



COl'VRKillT UIOl'OSIT. 



WHAT I SAW 

IN THE 

TROPICS 



A RECORD OF VISITS TO CEYLON, 
THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES, 
MEXICO, NICARAGUA, COSTA 
RICA, REPUBLIC OF PANAMA, 
COLOMBIA, JAMAICA, HAWAII 



By henry C. PEARSON 

Editor of The India Rubber World 



NEW YORK. 
THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 

35 West 2Ist Street 
1906 



LIBRARYcf C •IfiRESS 
Two Copies Reccjyed 

SEP 22 iqofi 

y^Copyn^nt Entry 
I COPY B. ^ I 



copyright, 1904, by 
The India Rubber Publishing Co. 



copyright, 1906, by 
Henry C. Pearson 



PREFATORY 

I HATE to write a preface, in fact 1 always resolve not to, and then 
do it. When I brought out "Crude Rubber and Compounding 
Ingredients," a captious friend complained Hiat it was too matter 
of fact, — that it "lacked imagination." As it was practically a diction- 
ary of methods of rubber manufacture. I did not care, that is, I did 
care, but didn't show it. This book is different, 'llie story of rubber 
planting is most romantic and at the same time as a whole is sound 
and successful. I should like to stop a bit just here to say to a lot 
of good fellows who smiled at ni}- predictions ten years ago — "I 
told you so." But they have forgotten, and if they haven't, — what's 
the use? 

Starting again, this book is not a scientific treatise. It contains 
the personal experiences of the author "dished up in his inimitable 
style" (note the quotation marks), in his search for rubber planting 
information in the tropical world. 

As a scientific treatise it may be scorned by some intellectual 
ones who have a string of letters following their names — (I wish I 
had them mvself) but whose attenuated digestive organs preclude 
the possibility of wedding fun with fact. 

At all events the statements regarding rubber made herewith are 
facts and can be gambled on. As to mi\- personal experiences and 
adventures, think of them as you like. 

Another word — I want to thank planters the world over, for 
their interest and hospitality, but then they know that too, and if I 
called them all bv name here this book would contain a three hundred 
page preface. 

HEXRY C. PEARSOX. 



CONTENTS 



CKYLON AND FKDERArED MALAY STATES 

FIRST LETTER. 

From New York to Ceylon 

Some Experiences of the Journey; ( )|)inions of Kiijij^lish Manu- 
facturers Reoardino; Ceylon Rubl)cr ; I'oints of Interest 
in the Tropics ; Beautiful Ceylon ; A \'isit to Typical 
Hevea Plantations. 

SECOND LETTER. 

Results of Exi'erimexts at the R(jyal Botanical Gardens . . 
Growth of Hevea and its Yield at \'arious Ages ; Canker 
P^unqus and its Treatment; Plantation Scenes. 

THIRD LETTER. 

A Visit to the New Experiment Station, Then to Culloden 

Tapping Rubber Trees at Peradeniya Garden ; Ficus Elastica 

Seventy-five Years Old ; Prospective Increase in Planting ; 

Rainfall and Labor; Some Incidents of Travel; Library of 

Singalese Sacred Literature ; The Para Output from 

Ceylon ; The \\ ceding of Crops in the Island, 

FOURTH LETTER. 

Some Profitable Days Spent at Cl'lloden 

Hevea Trees at the Beautifully Laid Out Tea Estate ; Night 

Tajiping ; Results of an Experiment in Scraping the ( Juter 

Bark from the Trees ; An ( )il made from Seeds of The 

Rubber Tree ; A Rul)ber Drying House and Methods 

of Coagulation ; Some \'aluable Information 

Gleaned from X'isits to Other Rubber Plantations. 

FIFTH LETTER. 

From Ceylon to the Malay S'iates 

Arrival at Singapore ; A Word About the Seat of Govern- 
ment ; \'isit to Royal Botanical Gardens; Hevea Re- 
sponds to Cultivation Here ; Phenomenal Growth ; Dis- 
tance Planting ; Castilloa and Ceara Less Promising 
A Visit to Chinese Merchant Quarters Where Gutta 
Percha is Prepared for European Markets ; Pro- 
cesses Watched with Interest; hrom Singapore 
to Selangor. 



CONTENTS 



SIXTH LETTER. 



Days Spent With Profit in Selangor 

Rubber Plantations at Klang; Distance of Planting; Age 

at Which Hevea Trees Yield ; The Labor Question ; The 

Chinese as Rubber Planters ; The Selangor Rubber 

Company : Return to Singapore and Departure for 

Hone Kone. 



ISTHMUS OF TEHAUNTEPEC 

FIRST LETTER. 

On the Way to the Land of the Castilloa 

The Mining City of Zacatecas ; Queretara Where Maxi- 
milian Was Executed ; Mexican Opals ; The Eternal Snows 
of Popocatepetl and Lxtaccihuatl ; From the Citv of ^lex- 
ico to Achotal ; Experiences at the Latter Town ; First 
Sight of Cultivated Rubber. 



SECOND LETTER. 

Prosperous Private Plantations 

Careful Study of the Situation Proved to Investors that 
Rubber Would be More Profitable than Coffee ; Results 
of Planting in Favorable and L^nfavorable Conditions ; 
Continual Tapping Showed Latex Given Out by All 
Trees ; Knowledge of Climatic Conditions Neces- 
sary to Successful Planting ; La Junta ; The 
Lal)orers. 



THIRD LETTER. 

A Grasp ox the Kuiuuir Planting Situation 

Clearing and lUirning In' Contract ; Danger from Fires ; 

Gathering Castilloa Seeds ; Costly Seed Failures ; The 

Journey to Coatzacoalcos ; Morning Glory A'ines ; The 

T'roblem of Tapping and Preparing for Market. 

fourth letter. 

Across tiii-: Isthmus 

\'iews of Many Plantations; \ast Tracts of Land Xeeding 
Only Irrigation to Make 'Idiem \'aluable; Mexican Laws; 
Animals and Insects of the Temijcrate Zone; Ahumer in 
Which Plantations are Taxed ; The Cow Pea and Vel- 
vet Bean Which Should Receive the Attention of 
Rubber Growers. 



CONTENTS 

NICARAGUA 

Rubber Interests in Central yVmerica 

Witnessing a Waterspout ; Through the Lagoons to the Ruh- 
her Plantations; The Manhattan Plantation; Too Much 
Water Detrimental to e'astilloa ; The Rainfall; Sim Irons' 
Rubber Groves and Cukra Plantations ; Careful Tap- 
ping; Four Hundred Thousand Castilloas in This 
Vicinity a Conservative Estimate; A Scale that 
Affects the Rul)ber Trees ; Samples Brought to 
United States and Examined at the Connect- 
icut Agricultural Experiment Station at 
New Haven ; Letters from State Entomol- 
ogist, Connecticut, and Acting Chief 
of Bureau of Entomology at Wash- 
ington ; Treatment Suggested for 
Extermination of the Pest. 



COSTA RICA 

A Plantation of Over One Hundred Thousand Castilloas 
Bananas the Chief Product of the Country Interplanted with 
Rubber in Many Instances; Proper Drainage the Onl\- Sal- 
vation for Rul)ber Trees; Watery Latex; Interest in 
Rubber Planting in Costa Rica Dates Back About 
Twelve Years ; Some Plantations That are 
Flourish in ST. 



PANAMA 

FIRST LETTER 

To Panama tn the Rainy Season 

Colon ; Along the Panama Canal ; F'anama City ; Toboga 

Island ; Quebro Outlaws ; Almost Wrecked ; Ashore at Last ; 

Castilloa Growing Within One Hundred Feet of the 

Shore ; Interesting Stories of the Pioneer. 



second letter 

Roughing It 

Camp Rio Negro ; Castilloa Groves ; Birds, Animals, and 
Reptiles ; Trips of Exploration ; Coagulating Rubber with 
Amole Juice ; Native Rubber Gathering ; Process of 
Tapping and Tools Used ; Trails Cut in Everv Direc- 
tion Followed by Long, Hard Tramps. 



CONTENTS 

THIRD LETTER 

Camp Iguaxa 

The Forest Primeval ; Bees and Rubber ; A Land Without 
Law : Breaking Camp ; Mountain CHmbing ; Plantation 
Las Marg-haritas ; On Board Quartos Hermanos ; Pan- 
ama, Colon, and New York. 



COLOMBIA 

Impressions of the Col^ntry 

Journey from the Port of Colombia to Barranquilla ; Amus- 
ing Hotel Experiences in That City ; The Stay in Carta- 
gena ; Little Information to be Gained About Rubber ; 
Meeting Mr. Granger, United States Consular Agent 
at Quibdo ; His Interesting Account of the Reason 
for the Present Lack of Interest in Rubber Plant- 
ing ; His Prophesy for the Future Based upon 
Present Well I-'ounded Indications. 



JAMAICA 

Outlines of a FL^•ING Trip 

A Word Concerning the Island of Jamaica ; Information from 

the Departtment of Agriculture ; A Visit to Castleton 

Gardens ; Something About the Rubber Produced There 

and the Conditions Attending it ; Hope Gardens ; 

Hevea and Castilloa ; The Milk Withe. 



HAWAII 

Rubber Culture in the Sandwich Islands 

The First Sight of Hawaii ; A Bit of the History of the Sand- 
wich Islands ; Temperature, Crops, etc. ; Prospects for Rub- 
ber Growth ; First Rubber Plantings ; The Nahiku Rul)ber 
Com})any, Limited; Principal Planting Done 1)\- United 
States Settlers. 



FIRST LETTER. 

Crossing the Atlaxtic— English Maxufactukers and Cevi.on Rubber— On 
Board the Himalaya— Stromboli— Port Said and the Suez Canal— The Red 
Sea and Aden— Beautiful Ceylon— At the Galle Face Hotel— Singalese, 
Tamils and Chinese — Quaint Customs — Director WiLi.is. of Peradeniya and 
Heneratgoda— The Oldest Plantations of Hevea— In a Bullock -'Hackery" 
to Heneratgoda Gardens. 

TO those who are interested as to why I chose the Le\-lan(l Hner, 
Dcz'oiiiaii, to carry me across the Atlantic at the heginning of my 
journey toward the Far East. 1 l)eg to explain that she is a big, 
roomy, seaworthy craft of 11,000 tons, that there were only six passengers 
all told, and although she carried some eight hundred cattle, they did not 
appear on the deck, or at table, nor would one have dreamed of their 
existence, once they were driven aboard. The ten days that were occu- 
lted in crossing, spent chiefly on the promenade deck playing quoits with 
the ship's doctor, put me in fine trim for the brief view of Liverpool and 
London that I had before the alleged train dc luxe bore me to Marseilles, 
to join the P. and O. steamship, the Himalaya. My stop in England was 
only long enough to allow me to see a few of the leading rubber manu- 
facturers, and get their ideas as to the value of the new Para rubber that 
Ceylon planters are sending to that market. 

One who has probably used as much of this rubber, or more than 
any other, summarized his experience as follows: "It shrinks on the aver- 
age about 1.4 per cent. I use it successfully in all grades of fine work, 
including cut sheet. Init do not like it for cements. It stands all tests 
after vulcanization — compression, stretch and return, oils. etc.. just as 
well as fine Para, and is perfectly satisfactorv."" 

Another detailed the results of his own experiments thus: "This is a 
general summing up of the practical results, obtained from approximatelv 
two tons of rubber, from about twenty different plantations. The irregu- 
larity in quality is very great, varying from tough elastic gum, apparentlv 
equal to Manaos Para, to soft, stickv short rubber, with little more elas- 



4 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

ticity than recovered rubber. This irregularity 1 tind in all the forms of 
pancakes, whether thick or thin, translucent or opaque, except those which 
have been smoked ; which, whether owing to the smoke or some other 
reason, have in the lots (from three separate plantations) which I have 
tested, proved even in quality throughout. I have been favored by one 
plantation with unsmoked samples ( separately treated and marked ) from 
eighteen year old trees, and from young five year old trees. Each of these 
samples proved regular throughout, but the quality was very different, 
that from the old trees being tough and very elastic, while that from the 
voung trees was soft and green. It appears to me, therefore, probable 
that the irregularity I have noted in the quality of shipments may arise 
from the varying ages of the trees, and that until they have reached abso- 
lute maturity, the latex of one season's planting should not be mixed with 
that of younger or older trees, but that each year should stand on its own 
merits to attain regularity in quality. Tbe smoked samples mav have come 
from old trees onl}-, and the smoke perhaps had nothing to do with the 
quality. This want of regularity utterly shuts out Ceylon rubber from 
fine work, such as thread, cut sheet, bladders, etc., and as the strength 
of a chain is but that of its weakest link, it cannot at present, for general 
work, be classed higher than the good mediums. For the special purpose 
of making cement, however, it has found a place for itself on account of 
Its extreme cleanliness, and the very convenient form of the pancakes in 
which it is shipped, practically ready for the naphtha bath. I believe in 
a great future for rubber planting, properly carried out. It might be 
done by the government forest department, and the trees rented when 
old enough. ■■ 

Thus the only "out" about the rubber, from the viewpoint of the 
user, seemed to be the presence of immature, or parth- cured gum, some- 
thing to be expected when the fact is remembered that the plantations 
are young and the planters without long experience in gathering or pre- 
paring for market. The added fact that it brings the highest price 
in the market led me to believe that I had before m? a most inter- 
esting series of plantation visits, once I slv, uld reach Cevlon and 
the Federated Malay States. 

As I said, therefore, I took train at Dover, crossed the channel. 
landed at Calais (so called from the way they handle one's luggage), 
shivered all the night in the absurd little French train dc luxe, and finalh- 
arriving at ^Marseilles, stepped aboard the steamer that was to be niv 
home for nearly three weeks. In due course we left the granite quays, 
the shii)ping, and the splendid limestone cliffs of the French port behind 



AM) Tim M.I LAV STA'/JiS 5 

and settled down td the Mediterrunean trip. We passed thrcnigh the 
straits of Bonifacio in the nit^ht, so that I liad no chance to observe, or 
photo^rai)h, and the next morning we were out of sip^lit of land. The 
day following we all started in to get acquainted. I was the oidy Ameri- 
can aboard, the major part being English people who had interests in 
India, Ce\lon, or .\ustralia, and some even were going beyond to Hong- 
kong and Yokohama. 

I had thought to do some writing on this voyage, but some kindly 
soul put me on the "annisements committee,"* and what with tourna- 
ments for deck ([uoits, cricket, ball, needle and cigarette races, etc., not 
to speak of two concerts, my time was pretty well taken up. Aly revenge 




THE A.ML'SEMENTS COMMITTEE. 

[On H. M. S. "Himalaya."] 



came with the concerts, however. I made a speech at each, relating vari- 
ous well known American stories as personal experiences, and they were 
most enthusiastically received. As the British are firmly convinced that 
all Americans are speech makers, it is w^ell for those who propose to travel 
with them to prepare to be called upon. 

On the night of November 21, we had a splendid view of the volcano 
of Stromboli. which gave us a veritable special exhibition. The night 
was moonless, and the sea as smooth as glass. About nine o'clock we 



6 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

caught the first red glow of the crater, and two hours later we 
were near enough to dimly discern the outline of the cone shaped island 
mountain, and to see plainly the red lava torrents that tumbled down 
its sides and were quenched in the sea. We all staid up until the island 
was lost to sight, and left the deck only when a faint reflection on the 
gathering clouds was all there was left to us of one of the most impres- 
sive sights. 

We passed the straits of Mycenae so early in the morning that none 
of us were up, and on jNIonda}- we saw Crete in the distance. By this time 
the boat had developed a pretty fair roll but few were ill, and the deck 
games went on — that is, for the men. On Tuesda)- noon we were behind 
the breakwater at Port Said and surrounded by coaling scows, crowded 
by dirty Arabs who did the coaling with baskets. As the air was full 







:"-'W' B< n Bfc mt—'^ riSS''''^^''^"" 



:KI. — : ■— wnmiBiHii' 





PORT SAID WATER FRONT. 



of coal (lust a half dozen of us secured a boat and went ashore, spending 
the afternoon in roaming the sandy streets, followed In' a crowd of beg- 
gars, jugglers, pox-pitted street venders, sellers of indecorous photo- 
graphs, and all of the rififrafif of the nastiest of all the cities of the Orient. 
Port Said is Iniilt on soil, chiefly sand, that was dumped there dur- 
ing the excavation of the canal. It is a Inisy, l)ustling place, due to the 
constant arrival and departure of steamers. It has a fair harbor made 



AND TJJIi MALAY STATES 7 

liy two l)reak\vatci-s, that extend out into the sliallows. one 7.0CX) feet, the 
other 6,000 feet. 

We expected to get away early the next mornini;-, Imt the mail from 
Brindisi being late, it was four o'clock in the afternoon before we en- 
tered the canal. According to rules, we steamed at four miles an hour, 
tying up to the bank when another boat was met. As we passed by three 
during the night, this occasioned quite a delay. It was cool, and 
a light overcoat was necessary after the sun set, but we did not stay long 
on deck as both sand flies and mos(|uitoes were quite abundant. 

In the light of our own American canal projects, it is interesting 
to remember that the Suez plan was entertained and dismissed as im- 
])racticable h\ Xai)oleon I, who was advised by his engineers that the 
Red Sea was thirty-three feet higher than the Mediterranean, and later 
when M. de Lesseps had proved that the difference in levels was but six 




IX THE SUEZ CAXAL. 



inches, such an eminent authority as Robert Stephenson declared the 
plan to be commercially unsound. There was also a rival plan brought 
out for a 250-mile canal from Alexandria to Suez. Nevertheless the great 
work was completed. It is one hundred miles long, only about one-quar- 
ter of it being artiticially made, the rest traversing natural lakes such 
as Bitter Lake and Lake Timsah. The plan of the canal was for a depth 
of twenty-six feet, the bottom of the ditch being seventy-two feet wide 
and the top about three hundred feet. This was carried out in places, 
but where the digging was especially hard it is somewhat narrower. The 
canal shows a slight current, and slowly though the boats go through it. 



8 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

there is a constant crnnil)ling- of the sandy hanks so tliat a force of steam 
dredgers is employed keeping the channel clear, nor is this work allowed 
to flag for an hour. 

The next morning we were still hemmed in h_\' sandy hanks, and the 
scenery was not inspiring, being varied only by small stations aliout 
which clustered a few lebec trees, the big dredges and an occasional 
native boat with its huge yards and dingy sail. Passing both the old 
and the modern cities of Suez, we left the canal and were in the gulf 
of Suez. Here the water was of a marvelous blue, the sun brilliant, and 
the far off, lofty sand dunes, scored and seamed by winds and rain, 
showed wonderful eft'ects in yellow, brown, violet and purple. Here 
we began to get the warm weather. With Asia on our left, Africa on 
our right, and both in sight, a smooth sea and blazing sun, white flannel 
and duck suits soon appeared; the punkahs were started in the dining 
saloon, and the whole of the deck shaded by both top and side awnings. 
Wind scoops were also placed in the open ports, and we felt at last that 
we were in the tropics. 

The next point of interest to be noted was the Daedelus shoal, from 
which our Captain Broun once rescued one hundred and eightv souls, 
who, escaping from the wreck of their vessel, were gathered in a shiver- 
ing crowd, waist deep in water. 

We had a further evidence of the genuineness of the hot weather 
the next morning at three o'clock, when the order came to close the 
ports as the water was slopping into the cabins. How most of them 
stood it I don't know, but I took a blanket and went on deck, and even 
then it was stifling. At daybreak we passed the "twelve apostles," a 
dozen big rocks rising abruptly from the sea, a grim weather beaten 
row. It was near here that the Turkish government, after much pressure, 
erected fine light-houses furnished with the lat:st illuminating devices, 
but after keeping them lit for two weeks, the lights went out and not a 
glimmer have they shown since. As navigation is a bit perilous herea- 
bouts, and mariners need the lights, it is just as well perhaps, that I 
<lid not make careful note of the quartermaster's opinion of the unspeak- 
able Turk, given as he told me the story. 

The days were now long, hot, and a bit monotonous. Shut out 
as we were on the promenade decks by canvas walls, the peeps that we 
got at the sea showed a glare of light that was almost unbearable. The 
only relief was when a sudden drenching shower obscured the sun and we 
got glimpses of mountainous islands, distant peaks, and still more distant 
ranges. We were fortunate, however, in seeing the volcanic island Jebel 



AXf) 'run M.IL.W STATUS 9 

Tair, and later Mocha. Mt. Sinai Iiaviiii; been ])assc'l in the w'v^hi. With 
a jrloriotis setting of the sun over Somaliland, w c ])asse(l throuj^h the 
straits of I'.ab-el-Mandeh, l,v the barren island I'erim, and the next 
morning- cast anchor in the harbor at Aden. 

It nmst have been two o'clock in the inornini;- when 1 awoke and 
found that we were at anchor. 'Idle sound that brouj;ht me to a sense of 
niv surroundings, and the insutferable heat of the cabin, was the chanting 
of a gang of coolies who were warjjing a huge freight scow uj) to our 
steamer. Their song was the iteration of two ])hrases that sounded like 
"Esco (/(/;•// ve! Perri go dani ye!" and with each "darn"' they all gave 
a pull, besides this, there was a constant chatter from a half hundred 
boatmen, that drove me on deck, where wrapped in a rug, and lying in 
the scuppers, I got a few more winks. Aden is as uninteresting as it 
is unhealthv. It is well called "the white man's grave," as hundreds lie 
buried on its rocky slopes. 

It is built on a flat, sandy, treeless plain, hemmed in by hills, arid 
and barren to the last degree. It rains here regularly once in three 
vears, and the water is stored in huge tanks five miles away u]) in the 
hills. Anvone who wishes to enjov a long cool drink, and then another, 
should seek this thirstiest of all thirsty spots. It was here that the 
passengers whose destination was India were transferred to another 
steamer. And sorrv we w^cre to have them go, for man_\- friendships had 
been formed which were of the sort that should continue. 

Here left, too, a young man who had not only been my partner at 
deck quoits, but who had given me much information about America. 
Shall I ever forget the evening, just after our excellent course dinner, 
when he said to me, with the kindest of intonations: 

"Don't you miss the sweets (candy) between the courses?" 

"What sweets?" was my bewildered query. 

"Whv. vou know, in America, at a course dinner, they serve sweets 
after the soup, and the fish, and the entree, and right through the dinner." 

I had no vivid remembrance of that custom myself, but his faith 
in the exactness of his information was so great that it would have been 
a sin to upset it, so I agreed that I was pining for chocolate creams after 
the consomme, and molasses candy as a chaser for the fish, and it made 
him mv friend for life, for wdiich I am exceedingly glad, as in spite of 
that one absurd idea, he was one of the finest chaps I ever met. 

Speaking of the people one meets in distant lands, it is sad to say 
that one's own countrymen are often the biggest freaks. I met one of 
the freak sort later. He had not been in the smoking room ten minutes 



lO 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



before he had told his whole history, and got every Briton and European 
there white hot by his comparisons, invidious and startling. In the 
midst of it I was pointed out to him as a fellow countryman, and he 
tried to get me into the fight, but I balked. Then he started in to impress 
me with his importance. 

"I come from God"s country." he said, "but I've been all over every- 

wheres. I used to be consul at A . I lecture, too. When I was consul 

at A I often used to go aboard a man-of-war and lecture, sometimes 

for two or three hours, and I always got seven guns ; what do you think 
of that?"" 

"Alighty poor shooting, so far, but they will get you some day," I 
said with conviction. 




BREAKWATER AT COLOMBO, CEYLON. 



After leaving Aden I was able to secure an upper deck cabin, which 
was much cooler than those either on the main or spar decks. Now that 
we were in the Indian Ocean, the sea grew much smoother, and early in 
the morning, after a salt water l)ath, the men promenaded the deck in 
pajamas until eight o"clock, after which ordinary clothes were required. 

We now began to feel the breath of the monsoon, while the water 
took on an even bluer blue, and tlying fish in shoals fled to right and 
left from the onrushing ship. The heaviest sort of showers also began 
to come with more or less regularitv, the ship"s officers came out in white 
duck suits, prawn, fish, and other currys appeared at dinner, and we 
kiiezv that we were in the tropics. 

On the evening (if Deceml)er 5, we sighted Alinecoi Island, a knv 
lying, circular bit of land crowded with graceful cocoanut palms, and 



.■^XD Till'. M.ILAY ST.iriiS 



I r 



a wcll-kimwn copra jjroduciiii; ])lac(.'. ( )n the (la\ foll()\vin5:(, at 1.15 in 
the mornins;-. we passed behind the j^reat breakwater and dropped anchcjr 
in Colonilx) harljor. in tlie midst of a great fleet of passenger and tramj)' 
steamers of all nations, native boats, lighters, etc. Most of the men 
al)oard were on deck, although ])ajama-clad, and as the coaling was 
soon to begin, 1 went ashore, passed the little black customs inspector 
without difficulty, and, getting in a jinrikisha, was soon at the (ialle 
Face Hotel and sound asleep in a big wide bed that seemed delightfully 
stead\- when contrasted with even the comfortable berths of the 
Hiuialaxa. 




PADDY [rice] field IX CEYLON. 

It may, perhaps, be well just here to refresh the reader's knowledge 
of Ceylcn with the following facts. The island lies south of India 
proper, and is two hundred and seventy-one miles long and one hundred 
and thirty-seven miles broad, and contains about 24,700 square 
miles. It has under cultivation, or used for pasture, some 
3,500,000 acres — more than a fourth of its area. Of this about 520.000 
acres are devoted to rice and other grains, the next largest planting 
being tea. of which there are about 400.000 acres. Other important 
products are cocoanuts, spices, cofifee, sugar, cacao, tobacco, essential 
oil grasses, etc. 

The population of the island is about 3.500,000, of which less than 
10,000 are Europeans. The majority of the natives are Singalese, of 



12 



RUBBER PLANT! XG IN CEYLON 



whom there are over 2.000,000. the otlier races heing Tamils ( of whom 
there are nearh- a milhon). Burghers. Eurasians, Moors. Malays, X'edahs 
(aborigines), and so on. 

The island has an excellent government of the paternal sort, admin- 
istered l)v a governor who is appointed by the King of Engand. He is 
assisted bv an executive council of five, but has power to overrule their 
advice. There is also a legislative council of nine, including members of 
the executive, together with eight unofficials appointed by the governor, 
representing the mercantile and planting interests and the native com- 
munities. 




CATAMARAN WITH SAIL, CE\LOX. 



The island became a British possession in 1795. Prior to this the 
Dutch, who had held it for 138 years, had wrested it from the Portuguese, 
who ruled it for 141 years. Interesting reminders of both of these 
conquests arc found in the high-sounding Portuguese names that many 
of the .Singalese bear, and in the Burgher types which remain quite 
Dutch, both in name and appearance. Neither the Dutch nor the Portu- 
guese had ever conqueretl the whole of the island, which was accom- 
])lished b}- the British in 181 5. Since then there have been a few 
rebellions, which, however, were easily suppressed. During the last one, 
in 1848, some 2,000 up-countr\- Singalese were put to flight b\- thirty 
Malays who wore the British uniforms, a proof that the ancient warlike 
spirit of the Kandyans is practically extinct. 



I\I) Till-: M.IL.IY STATES 



13 



.My first task after 1 was ci)nit(irtal)ly settled at the ( lalle l'"ace was 
to Imy a sun lielniet, (ir topcc, wliieli 1 was lucky enough to tind in one 
of the native stores that occu])y the ^roimd floor of the hotel. There 
are two dani^ers ag-ainst which visitors to this part of the world must 
yuard most carefullv : one is ex])osure to the sun, and the other a sudden 
chill. In no ])art of the world, if reports are true, is the sun so deadly as 
here, hut the danger mav he reduced to a minimum if one will but listen 
to the advice of the older residents, and take reasonable precautions. A 
])ith sun helmet is indispensable, as straw or felt hats are sources of 




STREET SCENE IN COLOMBO. 



danger, and a cap is worst of all. In addition, one should at first carry 
an umbrella as well. Xor is the danger present onlv at midday, or when 
there are no clouds. It is practically as bad at seven in the morning, or 
when the sky is wholly covered with clouds. The habits of the dwellers 
here — that is, the Europeans, speak of this danger. Men and women 
wear sun helmets and carr\- sun umbrellas, while broad verandahs and 
close lattices guard the houses. Even the railway carriages have, in 
addition to curtains, visor-like projections to keep out the searching ravs 



■14 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

•of Old Sol. There have heen cases even of sunstroke through the 
-eyes, from the intense glare reflected from white roads or from the 
water, while a single shaft of sunlight, entering a crevice in a shutter, 
.and falling on a man's temple, has been known to result fatally. 

Where the heat is so great, it seems almost absurd to talk of chills, 
but when the sun goes down, and it still remains so hot that collars 
wilt, and the whole body is wet with perspiration, there comes that 
•danger. The breath of the northeast monsoon, the regular wind of the 
winter months, while not cold, has brought on manv a fatal chill, and 
resulted in fever and death. Hence most of the Europeans wear flannel 
bands about the abdomen (cholera belts they are called), and are very 
careful not to sleep in a draught, or to cool off too suddenly when very 
warm. 

The natives, on the other hand, seem to be almost invulnerable both 
to the sun and to the " ■soon.'" They go about bareheaded, and almost 
bare-bodied, and sleep when and where they will, and rarely suffer from 
such exposure. 

Equipped though I was to stand the heat, I was not proof against 
surprise, nor the delight that I felt when I saw standing in the hotel 
lobby, my good friend, Henry Ml Rogers, of Boston, one of the directors 
of the Revere Rubber Co. He did not see me. and as my sun helmet 
Avould be a sort of disguise. I went up to him. and said: 

"Do you wish a guide, sir?" 

"No, I thank you," he responded politely. 

"But you do!" I insisted, "You are lost now, and don't suspect it. 
I will not only guide you for nothing, but will be glad to pav for the, 
privilege." 

I saw a gleam of recognition come into his eyes, as he said: "My 
•dear boy, the rubber trade of the United States sent me over here to 
watch over and guide you. It is you who are lost, and I am delighted 
to find you." 

Then we had a love feast, and instead of feeling far from home, 
kindred, and friends, it seemed as if the miles between Ceylon and the 
States were few. and most easily annihilated. At the same time, it did 
seem a l)it unusual that we two. starting from the same city, and circling 
the globe in opposite directions, without any knowledge of the other's 
.absence from home, should meet as we did. It was also very jolly. 



IXn 'mil M.IL.IV STATES 



15 



After jJi-oviiiL; to a score of .Mohammedan merchants who liaunt 
the hotel that 1 desired to l)ny no je\veh-y, silks, curios, or unset stfjnes, 
and threatening? the native tailor and shoemaker with my umhrella. 1 
had a chance to look ahout. The hotel is ])eauti fully situated on tiie 
seashore, its courtyard crowded with cocoanut palms, its hroad verandahs, 
latticed blinds, and hij;h ceilini^s makin<?- it as cool as one could exi)ect 
in so torrid a clime. It was impossible for me to communicate with 
any of the planters that day, so I gave myself up to the pleasant task of 
watching the strange |)LM)ple that surrounded me. For example, a Hindu 
juggler, with the inevitable native tlule. and a basket of cobras, invitee' 




BANYAN TREE, CEYLON. 



me out upon the lawn to view his magic. I thought it worth a rupee 
to see the "mango trick," and I was not able to detect any fraud in the 
sleight-of-hand bv which he apparently planted the seed, made it sprout, 
and within two or three minutes grew a pretty shrub more than two 
feet high. Bv encouraging a rival of his, I also saw a lively little mon- 
goose attack and kill a huge ratsnake, but no inducement was effective 
in getting him to trust his cobra within reach of its traditional enemy. 

Just as the exhibition ended, along came a steamer friend, with 
the information that he had engaged a gharry to take us out to Mount 
Lavinia. a favorite shore house some three miles away. As it promised 
to give me a view of the country, I gladly consented, and we were soon 
bowlino- along over the fine roads, drawn by a very diminutive but 



lO 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



energetic pony. On the way. we stopped at a Buddhist temple, and, 
under the guidance of a priest who spoke excellent English, we saw the 
great image of Buddha, in the forehead of which is set a sapphire as 
big as a teacup, which glows and sparkles with a most uncanny luster 
when the room is darkened. 

We also saw the small temple, where, securely sealed forever from 
human sight, are the sacred books engraved on plates of gold and 
silver. The doors to this little building, by the way, were walled up 
some eleven hundred years ago. As a special favor, the priest showed 
us a footprint of the god in solid rock. To my mind, it didn't do Bud 
justice, as the pedal extremity was exceedingly flat, and the toes looked 




I'l.AXTAINS, CEVLUN. 



as if they niiglit have been whittled out of soft pine bv a very poor 
whittlcr. The size of the foot, however, was all that could be desired 
by any believer. 

He also showed us a series of striking pictures, illustrating the 
various types of torture in the hereafter for those who killcfl anv living 
thing here on earth, even to the insects that make the fine-toothed comb 
a necessity. I was surprised to find among them special tortures for 
those who fish and hunt. 

In the temple enclosure we were at |)eace, but once outside a half 
hundred beggars, big and little, crowded about us, following closelv 
down the narrow lane towards our carriage. 1 was afraid some of 



AND 'run MALAY STATUS 



17 



tlieni would i^ive me of their various skin diseases, so I liired the priest 
fur a rupee to keeji them all at a distance, until we were on our way out, 
which he did. 

The drive to Mount Lavinia was so full of novel scenes that it is 
almost im])ossil)le to select even a few that are typical. Throu<:^h the 
narrow streets, crowded with native houses, from which swarmed half- 
clad men and women, and nude children, meetinj^- Tamils, Sinj^alese. 
Chinese, Moors — indeed all types of black and yellow men, turninir out 
for carriac^es of all sorts, jinrikishas, hullock hackeries and hus:e two- 




NATIVE METHOD OF TREE CLIMBING, 



wheeled thatched-roof wains, getting a glimpse of a rare tropical garden, 
then of a squalid Tamil hut, by Chinese graveyards, European villas, 
cocoanut plantations, banana patches — all over a road of good hard "cha- 
bok," we went, until we drew up at the little hotel-crowned height of 
Mount Lavinia. Here we had tiffin, with cofifee, out on the lawn under an 
umbrella-like tent, where we lay in reclining chairs and watched the 
sapphire sea studded with native fishing boats, their huge brown sails 
swelling with the breath of the northeast monsoon. It was scorching 
hot in the sun. so we waited until late in the afternoon, and drove slowly 
hack to the hotel. 



i8 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

I was awakened early next morning by my black Tamil bedroom 
man, wlio brought coffee and bread and fruit, and informed me that 
"Master's"* bath was ready. As I pulled the mos(|uito curtains aside, 
and got slowly out of bed, I was startled b}- a flapping of wings, and 
a very black and impudent crow alighted on the window-sill, his eye on 
the tray of food, and waited impatiently for me to go to the bathroom. 
On the tiled roof opposite were half a hundred more, awaiting the 




A\ rPCorXTRV TEA ESTATE IX CEVLoN. 

[Great Western Mountains in the background.] 

results of his investigation, so I took my coffee then and there. ( )n my 
return, not a crumb of food remained, much to the disgust of a couple 
of sparrows who were investigating my belongings with all sorts of 
profane comments. They left, however, when the lizard began to sing, 
and I didn't blame them, for however common and useful the house- 
lizard is in Ceylon, and even if it can catch more flies and mosquitoes 
than an)thing else, its song is not real music, and if you trv to stop it, 
by throwing a boot, the tail drops off', greath- injm-ing its looks. 



/.\7) THE MALAY STATES 



19 



\ cry early in llic day. I was inlroduccd l)y my requfst to the dhoby 
man, wlio is the washerwoman ol' tlie h:ast. He takes one"s clothin^,^ out 
to the nearest stream, wades into the water, and ])ounds tlie (Hrt out on 
the rocks, then ])artially (h'ics and irons them. He also lias a hahit of 
infestino- them with a ])arasite which results in the ••dhol)ies" itcli." I 
had a mixture of starch, horic acid, and ])ow(K'rcd zinc, which I desired 
to try on tliis parasite, and althou.^h I told him when he look the contract 
to Ije sure to ^iye me my money's wortli of germs. 1 didn't get one. and 
I am sure he had some, for he was always scratch ing. I fancv he deHv- 
ered mine to the cliaj) who had the room '--next to me. for 1 used to hear 
him scratching and "saying things" when night had fallen, and the "spicv 
hreezes hlew soft o"er Ce\lon"s is'e.'" 




' hevea" at heneratgoda. 

[Large tree in foreground on which tapping experiments were 

made for several years.] 



The next morning I called on '\lr. Ferguson, of the Tropical Agri- 
culturist, who for many years has heen a high authority on tropical 
planting. To my regret, he was ahsent. heing then in the United States, 
and, his nephew informed me. likely to call at my Xew York office at 
any time. I learned, however, that Director J. C. Willis, f. l. s.. of the 
Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, was then in town, and at the hotel 
fan.iiliarly known as the "G. O. H.,"" meaning the Grand Oriental Hotel, 
wliere I found him, and was ahle to secure his assistance in planning 
my visit to the typical Hcvca plantations. 



20 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



Prior to my visits to the plantations, in talking to those who were 
supposed to know about rubber plantations, there was a great unanimity 
of opinion as to the profits shown. One man, not an optimist either, 
said that in two cases he knew of. the first year's tapping had paid for 
the whole of the the original investment, and that the second year's 
production had shown a profit of 120 per cent. He was not quite sure 




I'AKA RrHlip:R TREES ( HEVEA liKASILIEN SIS ) AT HENERAT- 
GODA. 

[Tapping with Mallet and Chisel.] 

of the age of the trees when first tapped, but said they were certainly 
not ten years old. 

He said that when the planters had in view any new product that 
looked pretty good, the natives always planted a little of it. so that when 
harvest time came, they could secure a little from their own plantation, 
which, added to what they were able to steal from the white planters, 
often made a very good showing. Thus they were alread\- planting the 
Hcvca in a small wav, and wnuM doubtless later do more or less niyht 



.1X1) Tim M.ll..iy S'lATliS 



21 



tai)i)iiii4- on tlif ])lantati<nis of the white men. ( )f ccjursc. uncc thcv have 
the nihhcr, it is im])ossil)le to ])rovc title to it. 

In chatting with Director Willis, it was easy to see that he was 
enormously interested in tlie success of the Hcvca exi)erinients in Cevlon, 
and, intleed, in the whole of the East, and that he was doing much to 
further them. That the wdiole of the tr()])ical world in the I'2ast was fully 
alive to the opportunity that ruhher offers, he acknowledged. The 
hotanic gardens at IVradeniya, and the plantations as well, are constantly 
receiving visitors from Java, Sumatra, h'rench Indo-China, Siam, and 
similar countries, who are investigating the suhject, and often trying to 
contract for seed on the spot. 

As the oldest planting of Hcvca ruhher in the island is at Henerat- 
goda gardens, which is one of the government gardens, under the direct 
charge of Mr. Willis, he thought that my plan to go there first was a 
good one, and at once gave me a letter to the contractor in charge, Mr. 
William Perira. 

( )n the following morning, therefore, I had coffee at 4.30, and took 
a "rickshaw" to the railway station, and ere long was speeding along 
the seacoast toward my destination. The rising sun disclosed long 
stretches of swamp and jungle, stretches of sandy shore crowded with 
cocoanut palms, native villages just awakening, fishing villages where 
the whole population was engaged in pulling nets that had been filling 
up all night, and in time we reached the raihvay station at Heneratgoda. 
Hei-e as I could get neither gharri nor rickshaw, I was obliged to charter 
a bullock "hackerv." 



22 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



SECOND LETTER. 

Growth of Hevea Trees at Heneratgoda — Their Yield at Various Ages — 
Visit to Peradeniya — Director Willis and His Work — Canker Fungus in 
Hevea and its Treatment by Mr. Carruthers — Railway's in Ceylon — Plan- 
tation Scenes — Leeches and Other Insect Pests. 

AIjULLUCK liackery is a small two-wheeled cart, gjtudilv painted, 
with oilcloth top, no springs, and a seat on which sits the driver, 
so close to the little hump-backed bullock that he easily twists 
his tail, or punches his ribs to make him trot, wdiile the passenger, sitting- 
back to the driver, clings as Ijest he maw It is a most ierkv mode of 




bullock hackery and rickshaw, COLOMBO. 

progression, as the bullock starts and stops with surprising suddenness; 
indeed, his whole progress is a series of jerks against which it is difficult 
to guard. Were it not for the little step behind on which one"s feet 
rest, it would be impossible to hold on ior more than five or six minutes. 
The bullock is a tough little beast, about four feet high at the shoulders, 
and is supposedly guided by a pair of rope reins that run through his 
nostrils. He is, how^ever, more influenced by the half bark, half yell, 
of the driver, and the vigornus tail-twisting that he indulges in on 
occasion. 



AND Tilli MALAY STATES 



23 



I't'oin the station I rude tlir< iu,l;1i a most (Il'Hsl'In- ])o])ulatc'(l native 
villai^c, with narrow streets and a smell of stale tish that was simply 
appalling-. Here we gathered a lot of Hies, but as they ultimately settled 
on the bullock's hum[). no especial annoyance came from their presence. 
Finally we reached the entrance to the gardens, turned in. and in due 
time found Mr. Perira. who at once j)ut himself at my disposal. ( )n the 
way he showed me some Ccara rubber trees which appeared to have 
i;rown well, but as that tree in Ce_\lon has not proved i)rotital)le, it was 




EXPERIMENT GARDEN. I'EKADENIV A. 

[Ceara rubber in foreground.] 



to me of only transient interest. I did, however, measure one. twenty 
years old. which was two feet in diameter three feet from the ground, 
and was probalih- fiftv feet high. That it contained some latex I proved 
by cutting into it. 

A short distance awa_\-. on a somewhat lower level, was a grove of 
Hcvcas twenty years old, sixty to seventy feet high. They were planted 
about ten feet apart, and had taken full possession of the soil, no weeds 



24 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



or grass growing in the dense shade they cast. The trees looked verv 
healthy, with smooth bark and straight limbs, the branches appearing 
about thirty feet from the ground. There were about three hundred 
trees in this lot. They have been tapped experimentally a few times, but 
they are kept as seed bearers rather than rubber producers. The soil 




I'ERADENIVA GARDEN. 

[Castilloa dastica planted among cocoanut palms.] 

is gravelly, but seems to grow almost anything. The land is but thirty- 
three feet above the sea level, and the annual rainfall less than one 
hundred inches. 

Not far from here is the oldest ])lanting of Hczra at this place. 
These are trees about thirty years old. They are fine specimens, with 
massive trunks three or more feet in diameter. As a rule the trunks 



.^XI) THIi MALAY ST AT US 



25 



are strai.^-ht, single stems, but here several of the larj^a-r ones liave (hvidcd 
trunks. 1 liad a look at a few specimens of the Casdlloa clastica, but 
they (lid not appear to be doing well. I was also interested to see a 
good specimen of the Landolphia Horida, which did not strike me as 
a vine that it would be at all profitable to cultivate. 




PORTION OF OLD "HEVEa" TREE. 

[Showing proper healing of wounds that do not pass 
_ through the cambium, and injury caused by those that 
■ go too deep. Wounds made by chisel and mallet. 
Heneratgoda Garden : tree 13 years old.] 

It IS here at Heneratgoda gardens that the first successful planting 
of Tara rubber occurred, and what is more important, it is due to the 
eminent scientists in charge of this garden and that at Peradeniya that 
we have any sort of knowledge of the growth and productiveness of 
the Hevea tree under cultivation. Their work dates back to 1876 under 



26 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



Director Thwaites, when 70.000 seeds, sent from the x\mazon to Kevv 
gardens. London, were set out, only four per cent, of them germinating. 
Fropi there al>out two thousand plants were sent in wardian cases to 
•Ceylon in charge of an experienced man, Mr. W. Chapman, and ninety 
per cent, reached the gardens in an excellent condition. These were 
set out in haniboo pots and the next season were transferred from Pera- 
deniya to Heneratgoda and flourished almost from the beginning, but 
the planters had set their hearts on the Ceara tree and paid little atten- 




"HEVEA BR.XSILIENSIS. 

[Leaves and nuts on greatly reduced scale.] 

lion to the reports that the Director of the Gardens, Dr. Trinien, Dr. 
Thwaites' successor, made from time to time as to their growth. 

In 1883 several of the Hcvca trees at Heneratgoda flowered, and 
from the ripened seeds two hundred and sixty plants were raised and dis- 
tributed to various planters. One year later, one thousand plants were 
raised in the same way and sent out. 

In 1886, the Para plantation at Heneratgoda was thinned out, all 
of the smaller trees being cut down, after which there was a noticeable 
improvement in the growth of the remainder. Seeds were sent that 



AND Tim MALAY STATUS 27 

year t.) janiaiai. Madras. Ran-., on. IVnan-. and the botanic gardens 
at I'.uitcnzcjr.u-. Java, while from tlic crop ..f iS.SS there were "sent to 
the Straits Settlements some 11.500, to-etlKT with 1.000 to the I-iji 
Islands. 

Dr. Trimen made annua! measurements of a typical tree at licner- 
atgoda. which are as follows, the tree being planted in 1876. The meas- 
in-ements are circumferenlial, an.l taken, as is the custom, three feet 
from tlie grtJimd : 

Trimen. 1880 , ft. 4 in. '^'^^^ ^^^^ °^ ^^^^ ^'^O'^^ measure- 

1881 ' ■' y " nients was taken bv Director Trim- 

,883 .'.'.'.'2 " 6" " *-"'^' '"^*^ ^'^^' ^'-^^^^^ I'y Director Willis, 

1884 3" " his successor, who savs verv iusth- 

1885 3 " 7 " I ' ' " 

1886 4 " I " tliat more useful data is secured by 

'887 4" 5'4 " measurements that give the mean 

1888 S " o " 

1889 5 " 5 " fci'i'th ot all the trees. He therefore 

Willis. 1890 5" 9^ " measured in 1807, fortv-five trees 

iSgr 6 " I " , , , , . 

1892 6" 5 " "^^^ stand about thirty teet apart. 

^^93 6" 7V2 " that were then twentv-two vears 

1804 6 " 8 

old. The measurement was taken 

at al)out si teet from the ground. The largest tree was 7 feet 5 inches, 

the smallest 2 feet i inch, the mean girth being 4f feet. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the measurements of wild 

Hcz-ca trees made by Robert Cross in 1877, near Para. These trees 

had been tapped for from five to fifteen years, and their age was 

No. I 6 ft. 9111 ^"'l<'i"\vn. The figures are given here- 

No. 2 6 " 10 " with. 

No. 3 4 " 7 " 

No. 4 ^ ■■ o •' these measurements were 

No. 5 5 •• 10 " taken at three feet from the ground. It 

No' 7 J ■• o " '^^'ould seem, therefore, that the trees at 

No. 8 5" to " Heneratgoda had about reached their 

2°- 9 4 " o ■' crrowth. 

No. to 4 " 6 " ^ 

No. II 4"^ 8 " It IS as a seed-bearing proposition 

J^°' ^" -" ^ " that the garden I was visiting appealed 

Mean 410 » ft 

to me most. A hasty bit of figuring gave 
nie the total of between 3,000,000 and 4,000.000 Para seeds that had 
been sent (nit to planters all over the Eastern tropical world. A wonder- 
fully practical piece of work and one for which the tropical planter 
should be devoutlv thankful. 



28 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



One of the few tapping experiments extending over a series of 
}ears was carried out at Heneratgoda under the late Dr. Trimen. He 
selected a twelve-year-old tree that was 50^ inches in girth, three feet 
from the ground. This was tapped the first, third, fifth, seventh, and 
ninth years, the product being thirteen pounds seven ounces of dry 
rubber. As in any of the tapping years but seventeen tappings were 
caken, and they were well distributed through the twelve months, it 
would seem as if the tree might just as well have been producing every 
year instead of every other year, and that its average of one and one- 
half pounds a year might just as well have been three pounds. 




1EKAI;ENIYA GARDEN ENTRANCE. 



These experiments were followed by others by Director Willis, in 
which from smaller trees he secured on an average about one-half pound 
a tree, but where the trees were planted much more closely together. A 
curious fact in connection with the two experiments is that, supposing 
the Trimen trees had been tapped yearly and produced three pounds 
each, and the Willis trees produced one-half pound each, the result 
would mean the same production per acre, as the former stood fifty to 
the acre, while the latter were three hundred, in either case the produc- 
tion reaching one hundred fifty ])<)un(ls ]^er acre. 



AM) '!///■: M.ILAY STATUS 



29 



These yields, by the way. are not large, as Heneratgoda is not to 
be compared with other parts of Ceylon as a rubber producing locality. 
The many other and valuable experiments that were carried out here 
and at I'eradeniya would fill volumes. Exhaustive experiments were 
made, for example, as to the kind of incision that gave the best results, 
whether the "herriniif bone," the X- '^^ V, or the single / was the best 
with records carefully kej)! and compared to lead to the right conclusion. 

Then, too, experiments by the score were made to find what part of 
the tree was the best to tap. whether near the base or high up on the 
trunk. In addition to this, a long series of ex])eriments in the coagu- 




'FICLS ELASTICA. I'EKADKMVA CARHEX. 

[Showing spreading buttressed roots.] 



lation of the latex were instituted both by centrifugal machinery and bv 
the employment of a variety of acids. It is due directly to this investi- 
gation that the Ceylon planter to-day. if he wishes to hasten the coagu- 
lation, adds a few drops of acetic acid to the latex. Xor were these 
experiments done in secret. The results were published and scattered 
broadcast among planters all through the tropical world, with wonder- 
ful results for good. 

After a hasty look at the magnificent palms, of which the garden 
has more than fifty varieties, the banana, pepper, and other plants. I 
resumed my hackery, and jolted back to the railwav. As the return 



30 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

train was not clue for half an hour, I went to the "Rest House," a hotel 
owned by the government and run by a trusty native, where I had an 
excellent breakfast. I paid the fixed charges, signed mv name to the 
visitors' book, saying that I was well pleased, and walking on to the 
station, caught the train back to Colombo. In the afternoon I hired a 
jinrikisha, and rode around the town. These "rickshaws"' are simply 
huge perambulators drawn by a half naked coolie who trots along all 
day content with ten cents an hour (gold). Most of the rickshaws are 
old and rattley, but a few lately introduced have pneumatic tires, and 
it is only a question of time before they will all have them. 

As Director Willis had been good enough to invite me to make my 
home with him when I went up country to visit the Peradeniya gardens, 
and as I had only one suit of white fiannels, I got the tailor at the Galle 
Face to make me another. I was measured in the morning and the suit 
was delivered that evening. It cost ten rupees [=about $3.64] for the 
making, and the man who delivered it got two rupees, because the tailor, 
his master, was such a hard man to work for, and the boy who was with 
the man who delivered it got one rupee because of some affliction that 
he had sufifered, and the dog that accompanied the bov who was with 
the man — well, he didn't get anything, but I vow he sat up and be^^ged 
just as long as I was in sight. 

I made an early start for Peradeniya, which means "guava plain." 
going by the government railway in a very comfortable first-class car 
that is a sort of coinprontise between the American smoking car and 
the English compartment car, and about half the size. The government 
railways, by the way, are pretty generally good in Ceylon. The ecpiip- 
ment is all that could be expected, although the cars are small ; the 
freight cars, for example, being twelve-ton affairs with corrugated iron 
roofs, and the locomotives look very light. The raihvav stations, how- 
ever, are extremely good, and in most of them a white man need not 
wait at the ticket window, but may march into the agent's sanctum, 
and get his ticket before the natives are served. The profits that the 
railroads earn is expended on the carriage roads, a plan that some praise 
and some condemn. Anyhow, the latter roads are first-class, and an 
automobilist could go from one end of the island to the other if the 
ele])hants did not object. 

Soon we were bidden to the "refreshment carriage" where a good 
breakfast was served for about sixty cents, after which I sat on the shadv 
side in my car, and took note of the great paddy fields in which sullen 
water bufYalo wallowed and fed, and where natives, clad onlv in l)reech- 



AX/) run M.ir.lV STATES 



31 



cloths .-nid (lauI)C(l frdiii licad to foot in clayey mud, toiled in a half 
hearted way. 'Idien the scenery became more interestinji: as \\c- climbed 
to hio;her ground, the road running above a winding valle\ where great 
stretches of jungle were broken by banana and rice ])'antations, with 




"liEXDROCALAMUS GKJAXTEUS." 

[Giant bamboos in the Peradeniya Gardens, showing the young 
shoots, and a section of one.] 

occasional glimpses of splendid government carriage roads, while rugged 
mountain ranges in the distance made an effective background. 

Every now and then we stopped at a neat railway station, crowded 
with natives, interspersed with a few Europeans, for whom, by the way, 
the first-class waiting rooms and cars are alwavs reserved. Between 



2>^ 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



Polgahawela and Rambukkana, by the side of the track, is a very con- 
siderable plantation of Hevea, covering some sixty acres, the trees being- 
planted about eight feet apart. They are about three years old. and 
would average, for a guess, thirty feet in height. 

Further on, as we still ascended, the valley below was often a series 
of terraced paddy plots for miles. Then as we still skirted the valley, 




PERAPENIY.\ GARDEN. 

[Mr. Carriithers inoculating a young //I'xn/ with Canker.] 



which was farther and farther below us, we crept through man\- tumiels, 
•clung to the sides of ]jrecipices, getting occasional glimpses of Adam's 
I'eak. the famous mountain of the island, and still far below, we saw 
winding through the jungle — crossing rivers — the white roads, hard, 
smooth, wide, equal to any park roads at home, and then up, up, we 
climbed, the cabbage ])alnis, bread fruit trees, and trojncal grinvths now 
finding their home on the rocks, or in the wash of steep mountain ravines. 



AND THE MALAY STATES 



33 



'riic air was ra])iill\' ,s4ri»\viiiL; drier, a (IcciiIlmI relief after the steamy 
atni<)S])liere at the sea level : nor <li<l 1 note the heat as 1 leaned out to see 
as much as possible of the j^rcat tea plantations that now I'llled the 
valle\s, and encroached often on the stee]) hill and mountain sides. The 
soil, where it was in e\'idence, had a reddish look, and woulil not stig_e;est 
fertility were it not fnr the luxuriant growth it produced. 

.\fter a journew full of intense interest, we reached I'eradeniya 
station, and. alii^htiu^- from the train, 1 fotind Director Willis awaitinj^;' 
me. One of his coolies took m\- lu^-^a^e in charge, while his master and 
I walked U]) the broad, shaded road that runs 1)\- the beautiful entrance 




'FU LS BENGALENSIS — BANYAN TREE 

[In the main street at Kalatnra.] 



to the Ro\al Botanic (hardens. A few minutes brought us to the Willis 
bungalow, a very jiretty two-story house, set on a little eminence, and 
hemmed in with foliage plants, flowers, and magnificent shade trees. As 
the new governor of Ceylon, Sir Henry PJlake. had requested the presence 
of my host in Colombo, he turned me over for the moment to ATr. J. B. 
Carruthers, f. i.. s., the mycologist and assistant director. Mr. Car- 
ruthers, by the way, had but just returned from a month's visit to various 
Hcvca plantations, where he had been studying the canker that had 
appeared upon some of the Hcvca trees. He was of the opinion that 



34 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

the alertness of the planters in discovering the disease in its first stages, 
and calling for expert advice, would result in its extinction before serious 
harm came to the trees. 

The disease, although new to the Hczra as far as known, has long 
been an enemy to apple trees, cacao, tea, etc.. and frequently kills the 
tree or shrub upon which it grows. Mr. Carruthers, when first it 
appeared, examined portions of diseased trees, and recognized the fungus 
as a species of ncctria. He then visited both the government planta- 
tions of Hcvca and the larger private plantations. In one district. Kala- 
tura, he found only one tree in two hundred affected, but ontheEdan- 
goda estate, twenty per cent, of the trees were diseased; while at Yati- 
porua there were forty per cent. The appearance of the fungus on the 
trees is a swelling or roughening of portions of the tree trunk or branches. 
If the outer bark is cut oft", the tissue beneath shows at first a neutral tint, 
and later a brownish or claret color. When the fruit of the fungus ripens, 
it is a very minute red dot which is carried by the wind, by water, or by 
tree insects, to a moist spot on the bark of the same or another tree, and 
there it thrives, and soon fills the tissues with its iiiyccliinii. 

It was practically eradicated by cutting out the diseased portions 
and the burning of them. This is best done in dry weather. Nor did 
the cutting of the trees appear in any way to weaken them or hinder 
their growth. Mr. Carruthers had brought with him some cultures with 
which he proceeded to inoculate a young Hcvca tree, while I stole away 
into the grass with my back to the sun, turned my kodak upon him. and 
pressed the button. A moment later, happening to glance downward. I 
saw that the grass was fairly alive with leeches, all making their way 
toward me. I retreated very hastily, and at once began a frantic search 
for them about my person. I found a lot on my shoes, trousers, 
and outer clothing, Init was lucky enough to remove the last one before 
getting bitten. 

Speaking of insect pests, there are very few in Ceylon that are 
troublesome to man — at least I saw or felt but few. The mosquito was, 
of course, more or less in evidence, but I did not get too badly bitten. I 
did, however, resent its mode of attack. It does not approach you with 
a song, but. in a silent, crafty, suspicious way, alights, bites, and fiees. 
So suspicious is the creature that it is almost impossible to clap it on 
the back, as is the custom in America when he has succeeded in punc- 
turing one's epidermis. It, therefore, has no friends, and beds every- 
where are enclosed in huge nnislin screens ; otherwise one would be 
constantly bored. 



JM) Tllli M.IL.W STATUS 



35 



There is also the Iccvli. It lives, not in the water, l)ut in the grass, 
and in the juni^le. When exercising- on an empty stomach, it is very 
small, ahont the diameter of a knillin.-^-needle, and from one-half to 
one and one-lialf inches in length. ( hi liearing footsteps, it hastens 
toward the sound, getting over the ground at a surprising rate of speed 
for so tiny a creature, and without hesitation attacks instantly. If left 
to themselves, they till them.selves with blood, swelling to the size of 
one's little finger, and then drop off. Xor does this end the incident, 
for during their meal they inject something into the veins, which keeps 




YOUNG "HEVEA" trees. 

[Planted among tea along a watercourse, in Kalatura.] 

the blood from clotting, and the wound therefore remains open and goes 
on bleeding. If roughly removed during feeding, it is verv apt to leave 
its teeth in the wound, which causes inflammation, and. in some cases, 
troublesome sores. The best way to treat them is to wear close-knit 
stockings, into which the lower ends of the trouser legs should be 
tucked. This keeps most of them off, but if they do get on one, a few 
drops squeezed from a fresh lime makes them let go at once. Manv of 
the natives, who expect to encounter leeches, carry a lime or two with 
them. Others simply pull them off, and take the chance of having an 
inflamed wound. In certain districts these leeches are a great pest!^ but 
as the land comes unrler cultivation, they gradually disappear. It is said 



36 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

that during the conquest of the island by the British, many a private 
soldier lav down in the jungle after an exhausting day's march and 
never awoke, his veins being literally drained dry by the swarming 
leeches. Thev are as tough as if made of India-rubber, and about the 
only way to kill them is with fire. If cut in two, the separated parts 
will join together again, and they are always voracious, active, and 
absolutely devoid of fear. 



AND rilli MALAY STATUS 



37 



THIRD Ll<:'rTKR. 

Tapping Rubber Trees at Pkkademva Gakijex— Visit to the New Experi- 
ment Station— Seventy-five ^'KAu Old Ficus Elastua— The Sti/mp Speech — 
Kandv— Temple nv the Sacred Tooth— Hotel Tips — On the Way to Kalatura 
-Early Tea at the "Rest House"— M-. Harrison and Culloben Estate. 

STEAKING again of canker, and the absence of the disease on the 
South American Hcrca trees, Mr. Carruthers said that it was 
(inite possilile that individual trees* there might have l)een attacked 
by it, but as the trees are wikl, and grow singly, the disease, after exhaust- 
ing its victim, would probably die out, as it would have no other Hevca 




SATINWOOU BRIDGE, PERADENIYA. 



near enough to reach. This, of course, led up to what has been proved 
since planting of any sort has been carried on on any considerable scale. 
That is. the occurrence of diseases and insects unknown before, but which 
found in great plantings of a single kind the most favorable field for 
rapid growth and rejiroduction. 



38 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



It was while discussing these subjects that we visited the adminis- 
tration buildings of the gardens. They are neat and business like, and 
with their tropical setting form a very pretty picture. We visited the 
museum, where sections of the woods, in which the island is very rich, 
are displayed ; while seeds, fruits, and everything pertaining to the life 
of the plant growths are carefully prepared and preserved. He also 
showed me the offices of Director Willis, his own laboratory — where 
some very interesting experiments in determining the vitality of the 
Hevca nut were then being carried on — introduced me to Air. E. E. 
Green, f. e. s., the government entomologist, and then led me to some 
of the fifteen-year-old Para trees, which we tapped. It was really too 




■ HEVEA AT EDANGODA. 

[Government Forest Department plantation, 8 years old. Mr. 
F. Lewis, assistant conservator of forests.] 

near the middle of the day for the latex to do more than ooze out very 
slowly. The tool used is well known. It only needed a very few cuts 
with it, however, to convince me of its usefulness ; indeed, for the Hcvca 
it is far superior to any form of machete that I have seen. 
The incision is really a drawing cut that takes out a stri]) 
of bark, laying the cambium bare. The cut is clean, small 
and may be made by the most unskilled coolie with but 
little chance of injuring the tree. I had with me a small two-bladed 
tapping-axe, invented by a friend in the United States, which I had 
brought along to test. We all tried it, but the simple little tool far 



AND Tim MALAY SJATJiS 39 

outdistanced it. Leaving tlie collecting and straining (jf the latex to 
the coolies, Mr. Carrnthers took me to his hungalow for breakfast, which 
meal dccurs at n<i(in, and there we discussed various phases of rul)l)er 
planting. In referring to the government ])lantati()ns of Hd'ca. he said 
that there were about one hundred and fifty acres now planted, and it had 
not been decided yet just how the\- would be administered. According 
to his figuring, these plantings cost about 1,200 rupees [=$389.32! an 
acre when matured. If thev are to be leased under proper restrictions, 
the opinion seemed to be that the govermnent should not reap more than 
five per cent, interest on its venture. IVut most of the experts think that 
it would be better for the government to sell the plantations as near cost 
as possible. For further information he referred me to Mr. l\ Lewis, the 
assistant ct)nservator of forests. Colombo. 

The following morning we crossed the Mahaweli River, a deep, 
swift, muddv stream flowing by the gardens, to visit the great experi- 
ment stations that are under the charge of Mr. Herbert Wright. A. r. c. 
.s. There is no bridge, so one is ferried across in a very narrow wooden 
dugout, with the usual outrigger one side to prevent upsetting. This 
experiment garden is new, and contains about 1.200 acres. I believe, and 
takes in the native villages of (iangaruwa and Yatiyalagala. 

Mr. Wright kindly piloted me over the sections devoted to rul)ber 
planting. Just to see what the Casfilloa and the Ceara rubber will do 
in that climate under varying conditions ; he has many different plots, 
both in the shade and in the open. I'erhaps the most interesting is the 
planting of the former where it is shaded by cocoanut trees. All of 
these rul;ber plots were small of course, and the trees very voung, so 
that at the present it is impossible to sav what results will be attained. 

As we walked about the place, it occurred to me to learn just how 
hot it was. and I found that it was 127° F. in the sun. and the guess was 
that it was about 85 "" in the shade. As we were in the sun most of the 
time, we had no reason to feel a chill. 

In the afternoon. Director Willis having returned, we had a look 
at the Ficiis clastica trees planted some seventy-five years ago. They 
are hugt? growths, and unlike the Straits trees of the same name, do not 
send dov.n aerial roots, but instead form great root buttresses. They 
produce little if any latex, as my own tapping experiments abundantly 
proved. Further than that, they are dying, so that every now and then 
it becomes necessary to fell one of them, for if it unexpectedlv dropped 
its one hundred and fifty feet of length across the carriage road, a serious 
accident might result. 



40 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



Speaking of the Hcz'ca plantings in the island, Mr. Willis said that 
at that time there were about ii,ooo acres, and as the annual production 
of seeds was about 3,000,000, he thoug-ht that the planting increase 




PERADENIYA GARDEN. 

[Planted Castilloa clastica and cacao.] 



would be about 5.000 acres annually. He said that the Hevca could 
undoubtedly be planted in sheltered valleys, up to 4,000 feet altitude. In 
many situations the trees would mature more slowly, their growth depend- 
ing upon the rainfall, and the richness of the soil. At Peradeniva those 



AND in J: M.\l..l)- ST.ITJiS 



41 



that had iiialurcd more slowly had produced latex as i^ood and ahutidant 
as had the others. The Casfilloa had proved itself more tender than 
he could wisli, and the s^eneral sentiment amon^- the j)lanters was that 
it would nut he as protitaljJe a venture. Speaking- of rainfall at Pera- 
deni}a, tliey could always reckon upon ninety inches quite well distrib- 
uted. Labor, of course, is very cheap, ten cents a day being the regular 
wage, shelter being furnished, but not food or clothing. 

As an incident to this visit, I walked over the gardens, l)v well-kept 
roads, shaded b\' magnificent trees, and visited the "hot house" for 
orchids. As there is also a tea factorv near the gardens, Mr. Willis 




KUBliF.R TREES KILLED BY FLOOD. 

[Part of a Forest Department Hcz'ca plantation in a valley snb- 
ject to flood, showing- the wa}- in whicli the tlooded trees died.] 

was good enough to take me through that, and show me every process, 
the plucking, withering, rolling, drying, sorting, and packing, all of 
which was most interesting. After taking leave of Director Willis atid 
his good wife, ]\lr. and Mrs. Carruthers, and all who had made my stay 
so pleasant, I took the train for Kandy. four miles away, where I planned 
to spend the afternoon with a steamer friend, and do a bit of sightseeing. 
As I waited for the train, I was conscious of careful inspection on the 
part of a man near me. He was a nice, well-fed, self-satisfied old gentle- 
man, who sat by my side in one of the three cane-seated chairs that 
stand on the depot platform for the use of the white patrons of the rail- 
road. 



42 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

"You couldn't have cane-bottomed chairs in a railway station in 
America, now, could you ?"' said he to me. 

"Why not?"' I asked, much surprised. 

"On account of the extraordinary habit you Americans have of 
standing on chairs, and making- stump speeches," he responded with con- 
viction. 

That he was in dead earnest, and that no denial of mine would 
affect his belief, one look at his countenance showed. It seemed a pity 
that he should not add to his store of knowledge along that line, so I 
said carelessly : 

"That, of course, used to be so a few years ago. Indeed, it was a 
great nuisance. In public and private, at the theatre, at concerts, at 
receptions, even in church, stump speakers would suddenlv mount chairs 
and harangue all in sight. It was a disease, you know, caused bv a 
germ that was bred in the cotton fields of Xew Hampshire." 

"Fancy!" gasped m\- listener. 

"Oh yes, pure and simple," I continued (referring to his exclama- 
tion). The germ is known as the Scptciuiis vocif evens, and I may sav 
modestly that it was due to a little invention oi mv own that it is no 
longer feared in America." 

"How interesting! And pray what was your invention?" 

"Is it possible that you never heard of Pearson's Patent ( )rator 
Discourager?" I asked with pained surprise. "It sold verv well; indeed, 
I made a comfortable sum out of it. Quite simple it was, but it did the 
work. It was, in a word, a semi-spherical rubber spring, so placed 
beneath the chair bottom that when one tried to step there, he was 
instanly thrown over backwards, the shock killing the germ, but rarely 
injuring the man. If, however, one sat in the chair, the spring had no 
effect." 

"Very ingenious ! A most excellent device ! I congratulate you !" 
exclaimed my listener, warmly. "Of course, it was onlv useful in your 
own country." 

"I was coming to that. Having sold all I can in America, I am now 
about to prepare a foreign market for it." 

"But — but no one makes stump speeches here, for instance!" he 
said. 

"Ah, that's just it. They don't now, but they will. Our lalioratory 
is working night and day ])r()ducing healthy cultures of the germ. I am 



AND Tim MALAY STATUS 



43 



traveling around tlie world plantino- them everywhere. They are invis- 
ible, j^ractically. The ])aek <if your ehair this moment is covered with 
them where m\- hand rested jjetore _\-ou eamc alon^'. 1 Icre is my train, 
(iood hye." 

.\s the train left the station, a once peaceful and scll-satisficd ency- 
clopedia of American habits, with red face and anxious mien, was stand- 
ing- far awa\' from the three chairs, and making- a stump s])eech to a larg-e 




SENSATION ROCK, NE.\R K.\NDY. 



crowd of bewildered coolies. Those germs worked so quicklv on him 
that I almost believed in their existence. 

A few minutes later I was in Kandy. and comfortabh- established 
at the Queen's Hotel. 

The city of Kandy (Hill town) is noted chiefly as having- been the 
seat of the Kandyan kings, the possessor of the temple of the Sacred 
Tooth, and at the present time for having onlv one hotel, "The Queen's," 



44 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



where a German tourist finds good entertainment for about two dollars 
a day, while an American or an Englishman must pay five dollars. The 
city lies in a lovely valley, and is built around an artificial lake, on an 
island, in the middle of which once stood the royal harem. The walks 
and drives around the city, over beautifully kept roads that ascend with 
only the slighest grades, are simplv ideal. 

As a matter of duty, I visited the Buddhist temple of the Sacred 
Tooth during service. It was after nightfall, and the beating of the tom- 
toms and noise of conches were almost deafening. I secured a guide at 
the main entrance, or rather he secured me, and, accompanied bv two 
.■self-elected explainers, and a boy carrying a lighted candle, we went 




KAXnV — LADV HORTON S WALK. 



from one shrine to another, giving up contributions of small change 
before each, jostled by crowding worshippers, laden with fruit and 
flowers. 

Of the things that linger in my memory, the library of Singal- 
ese sacred literature is most prominent. There are hundreds of volumes, 
the leaves of the books being strips of fiber from the Tallipot palm, 
the letters l)eing etched into the surface and then filled with ink. They 
are beautifully bound in gold and silver, and ornamented with jewels. 
There was also an image of the god. three feet high, of solid gold, as well 
as one carved out of a single block of crystal, some ten inches in heieht. 



AND TlllL M.IL.IV SI ATliS 45 

'ilicn tluTc were c<)])])rr, i\(iry, silxcr, and .l;<i1(1 carxing and liligroc 
work that would look just as well in AnK-rica. hut there were too many 
around. I did not see the Sacred Tooth, which is carefully "guarded, 
and needs an order from the ,e^overnment hefore one is permitted to 
view it. The true helievers are sure that it was once a part of Ihiddha's 
dental e(|uipment, while the scientists say it belong^ed to a crocodile. 

I didn't tarry long- in Kandy, but took the morning- train back to 
Colombo, as I now had more definite knowledge of the typical planta- 
tions, and how to reach them, as well as letters to the men in charge. 
Perhaps, as a hint to others, I should say that when I left the hotel in 
Kandy, after paying my bill, the following servants put in a claim for 
tips: Bedroom man, hath man, head ])orter, waiter, doorman, gharri 
driver, the porter who puts your l)ag into the train, and anv other native 
who can catch your eye. 

It was earlv in the morning when the writer and Miguel de Silva. 
the Singalese plant collector at Peradeniya, who was loaned me l)y 
Director ^^'illis, entered rickshaws and started for Slave Island station, 
on our wav to Kalutara. For some distance the railroad follows the 
sea coast, disclosing the beautiful villas of Europeans, native fishing 
villages, and the blue sea itself. According to custom. ^^liguel rode 
with the natives, and I, in the car reserved for the whites, was not able 
to question him as I had planned. A friendlv planter, however, did 
explain that the land over which we were passing was very valuable, 
through the palms which grew upon it, that were used in the production 
of the native liquor, "arrak."" He said also that the ownership of these 
palms was most complex, one tree often being owned jointlv bv as man\- 
as five natives. I had noticed that many of them had a wattle of reeds 
braided about the stem some six feet from the ground, and was amused 
to learn that this was to guard against thieves. It seems that the night 
climber cannot surmount this apparently flimsy barrier, nor remove it 
without making such a crackling that the owner is awakened sufficientlv 
to remonstrate — usually with a knife. 

Arriving at Kalutara, Miguel appeared, and with a commanding^ 
gesture secured a coolie to carry my bag, and we wended our wav to 
the "Rest House" for breakfast. As the day was already a scorcher, its 
broad verandahs, square rooms, and cement floors gave one an impression 
of coolness which was truly grateful. Here I had "earlv tea." consist- 
ing of "papaya" (the luscious fruit of the paw paw tree), ham and eggs, 
bread, butter, and cofifee — an excellent meal, the whole charge for which 
was, I believe, one rupee. 



46 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



After Ijreakfast (I would say "early tea"") we secured a gharri, 
drawn by a horse that must have been a survival of the Portuguese occu- 
pation, so ancient was he, and started ofif for Tabeuwana. five miles 
away, where was another rest house. One advantage of the horse over 
the automobile, and the slow horse over the fast one, is that it allows 
one to take in the beauties of the scenery to a greater degree. The 
languid creature to which I had entrusted myself gave me ample chance 
to enjoy the cinnamon groves, the cocoanut plantations, and the paddy 




CEARA RUBBER TREE. 

[At Polgahawella ; planted about 1886.] 



fields. Besides this, I was interested in the natives, and when we mean- 
dered slowly through a village with the houses close to the road, and 
smelling like a fish glue factory that had soured over night, I simply held 
my nose, but kept my eyes wide open — and saw much that is not set down 
here. We tarried at the "Rest House" at Tabeuwana only long enough 
iov noon breakfast and then pushed on for Culloden, which, Ijv the way, 
is in Neboda, or at least that is the nearest postofiice. The roads were 
good, as all in Ceylon are, and there are some 4,000 miles of them, but 
the scenery liegan to show a decided change. The countr\- became more 



■/.\7^ 77//: M.IL.IV Sl'ATliS 



47 



hilly, great masses n\ hlack gneiss showing (lul lliriiUjuh the luxuriant 
foliage. I'inally, wc ascended a long hill, turned into a tea plantation, 
and leaving the gharri, followed a winding path\va\- to a ])rettv bunga- 
low, situated where it commanded a view of much of the surronnding 
country and even gave a glim])se of the sea in the far distance. Here 
I was met and welcomed 1)\- Mr. R. W. Harrison, and a neighbor, Mr. 
J. T. Withers, of Clontarf. 

It was really too hot just then to start out to \ie\v the rubber, so 
we sat in huge planters" chairs that have broad shelf-like arms that 




VIEW FROM HILLY ROAD NEAR CCLLODEN. 

extend far otit in front, arranged so that the lounger can have his feet 
as high as his head, and talked planting experiences. 

Culloden is. of course, primarily a tea estate, beautifullv laid out 
with fine gravel roads all over it. and not a weed to be seen at anv time 
in all of its broad acres. Indeed, the weeding of crops in Cevlon has 
been reduced to an exact science. It is all done Iw contract, and costs 
thousands of potnids a year, but it efifectually stops the danger from fire 
that an occasional cutting of the weeds invites. 



48 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



Air. Harrison, the manager at Culloden, is perhaps the best eqiiipi)ed 
rubber planter in the island, either from the planting or gathering stand- 
point. While he is in direct charge. of Culloden estate, which, in 1903, 
produced 10,500 pounds of Para rubber, he had also supervisic!i over the 
following estates : Heatherly, which produced, the same year, 3,500 pounds ; 




FIFTEEN YEAR 0L» 'HEVEA TKEES. 

[Planted among tea on an estate in Kalatura.] 



Tudugala, 6,000 pounds ; Yatupauwa and Edengoda, 5,000 pounds. Thus 
it will be seen that fully one-half of the early crops of Ceylon Para 
passed through his hands, and in visiting him I was sure to l)e at the 
center of the rubber planting interest. It might be well to remember 
also that this 25,000 pounds annually, with a decided increase each year, 
came from about 20,000 trees that on an average are eight years old. 



^ixn iiiii M.iL.i)- siwri'S 49 



I-orUTll LI-.'i'TI-.R. 

Rubber Trees anu Taitixg at Culloden — Night Tapping — Rubber Curing 
House — Oil from Hevea Nuts— Cost of Para Rubber at Colombo — Arapola- 
KANDA Estate — Smoking Ceylon Rubber — Sunnycroft Estate — Enemies of 
the Hevea — A Touch ok Fkvkk — Thf. Forest Conservator — A Paddy Field 
Experience. 

AT the close of my first day at Culloden. when the sun had dropped 
low enough to make it fairly comfortable in the open, at Mr. 
Harrison's invitation, we started out to see the rubber. The 
plantation is primarily for tea, the rubber having- been jjlanted later 
through the tea and also in some of the valleys. The land is verv rocky, 
ironstone abounding, but there must be something in the soil that 
suits the Hci'ca, for it flourished wonderfully. The onlv place where 
it did not appear to do well was in very low ground, where there was 
no drainage. The swampy portions of the land have, therefore, been 
thoroughly drained ; indeed, where some of the seven and eight vear 
old rubber now is there had once been a bog where cattle were wont 
to get mired. The rul)l)er on this soil, which was very rich, had some 
three feet of drainage. Of course, it was to be expected that the Hci'ca 
would grow in such soil as this, but I must confess that I was amazed 
to see it flourishing far up on rocky hillsides, and sending its laterals in 
all directions for food. The Hczra has proved itself, in Cevlon at least, 
a most voracious surface feeder, and in this connection it is worth while 
to examine the illustration of the uprooted tree held erect between two 
cocoanut palms, with the laterals stretched right and left, showing a 
growth longer than the tree trunk itself. The photograph from which 
my illustration was made was taken by Mr. J. B. Carruthers, and is most 
graphic. 

The tapping of the trees begins just as soon as it is light in the 
morning, for through the middle of the day the latex does not flow 
freely, but starts up again about four in the afternoon and is continued 
until dark. The trees are tapped when they show a girth of two feet, 
without regard to their age. No ladders or supports are used in tappino-, 
as it wasn't found profitable to tap higher than a coolie can reach while 
standing on the ground. The tool is a very simple \'-shaped knife with 
two cutting edges, and a single slanting cut about eight inches long has 
been found to be best, a tin cup being placed under the lower end of 



50 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



the cut and held in positi(in liy forcing its sharp edge luider the bark. 
These cuts, bv the wav, are about a foot apart, sometimes closer, and 
all run in the same direction, the herring bone and the V-shaped cuts 




"hevea rubber tree. 
I Suspended, to show extensive lateral root growth.! 

being no more in evidence. The practice is also followed now of cutting 
a very thin shaving from one side of the cut, every other day: eleven 
times, in other words, reopening instead of tapping. Before placing 



.1X1) 'run MALAY sr.i'n-s 



51 



tlu- tin cu]) under the cut, it is rinsed out in old water to keep the lalcx 
ivi ni adhering- to the tin, and also to kee]) it froni too (juick a coajC^ula- 
lion. While I was there, a \'ery interesting- ex])erinient in scra])inn- the 
miter hark from the trees had just heen finishe<l. The results, as far 
as could l)e determined, were such a stimulati<in to the lactiferous ducts 
[hat the flow was increased nearly hfty ])er cent. The ohk-st trees on 
this plantation, l)y the way, are ei.^iiteen years, and have ])roduced three 
pounds a }ear : hy scrajjin^- the outer l)ark off the\- e.\])ect to ^et six 




"HEVEA TKEES AT CLI.LUUEN'. 

[Seven and eight years old.] 



pounds a year from each of these. There are only a few of these older 
trees, however, most of them bein": seven or eig^ht years of age. All 
through the rubber orchards on this estate were hundreds of young 
Para trees that were self sown ; indeed in many places thev had come 
up so thickly as to be a nuisance. The workmen on this estate, one 
hundred in number, are all Tamil coolies, as the Singalese do not care 
to work, preferring to cultivate rice, a good crop of which insures them 



52 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



a two or three years' vacation. By the time we had examined a few 
Casfilloa trees that were planted by way of experiment, night had faUen, 
and we wended our way back to the Ijungalow, where, after a hot bath, 
as is the custom of the country, we sat down to dinner in pajamas, the 
"punkah walla"" stirring the heavy, moist air Ijy most vigorous pulls 
at the "punkah" cord throughout t\v meal. 




HEVEA TREES AT CULLODEN 

[Eighteen years old from planting.] 

The rainfall up here in Kalutara is rather more than down at the 
coast, being, so I was informed, one hundred and forty-four inches, and 
the maximum temperature 94° F. While I was there it was unusuallv 
dry, yet the rubber looked well and there was a record of six weeks with- 
out rain, wdiich had no apparent efifect upon it. The next morning we 



AND Tllli M.IL.IV STATUS 



53 



visited Dtlicr parts of the i)lantatii in, and saw a i,n't'at deal of Iiik- rul)l)cr. 
At present there is an exeellent market for the seed, as so many new- 
plantations are j^oiii^- in. As a bt-tter pre]jaration, however, against the 
time when the seed will he a drut;- in the market, my host was experi- 
mentins;- with an oil made from the seeds. With a rude native mill he 
turned out an oil which the native women eai;erly purchased to burn 
before their i.;ods, while the pressed cake made an excellent food for 
cattle. During- the forenoon T saw a large Ceara rubber tree cut down 
and it seemed to have no /(//(\r in it at all. 1 also saw a I'ara rubber tree, 




-I I-:XE IX KELAXI VALLEY, ("EYLOX. 



self sown, growino- out of a cleft in the rock where there was apparently 
no soil, the trunk Ix'ing ten inches in diameter and apparently very 
thrifty. 

One of the most ■ interesting features of this plantation \vas the 
rubber curing house, where the milk is coagulated and the rubber pre- 
pared for market. This is a one-story, brick building, 30X80 feet, 
smelling for all the world like a dairy, as one steps within its doors. At 
one end of the room is a long table upon which are hundreds of enamelled 
iron pans, capable of holding about a quart each. Into these pans the 
milk is poured through a cheese cloth strainer, after having been previ- 
ously strained in the field. To it is often added a very little acetic acid 
— a fcii' drops only. This is allowed to stand over night, and in the 
morning there is to be found in each j^an a pure white pancake of rubber, 
soft, spongv. and full of water. Each cake is rolled on a zinc-covered 



54 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



table with a hand roHer and much of the water thus expressed. The 
name of the estate is then stamped upon it with either a wooden or metal 
die, when it is ready for the heater room. The heaters used are simply 
charcoal ovens, the rubber being spread on wire screens above the fire, 
and left for three or four hours. By this time the pancakes have lost 
about 50 per cent, in weight and are beginning to assume a decidedly 
darker hue. Cakes in the condition described, if in South America, would 
be immediately marketed, but not in Ceylon. From the heaters thev go 
to drying racks, where they are air dried for a month or six weeks, the 




KlM'.r.EK CURING HDU.SE, CULLOUEN. 



time depending somewhat upon the weather, and are shipped only after 
careful examination as to quality and dryness. The care which the 
planters are expending upon the preparation of the rubber is the best 
sort of guarantee that the (|ualit)- will be sustained, and that the day 
will come when the name of a plantation on a cake of rubber will tell 
its value almost to a penny. To follow the rubber a little further, it is, 
when perfectly satisfactory to the planter, packed in chests, the counter- 
part of the regulation tea chest, made of "momi" wood that comes in 
shooks from Japan, each ])ackage containing about two hundred pounds. 
There is also a coarse rubber that is secured bv picking the scrap 
from tapped trees. It is a very excellent rubber, and while I was there 
it found a market at t^s. c^Ui., while the fine was bringing 4^*. 9^^/. Tliere 



'.\7^ 11 Hi M.iL.iY SI .rr/is 



55 



arc those who claim that it is unwise to pick the lihu n\ rul)her out of 
the taijpin^ wounds in the tree, as there is danger tliat insects or disease 
enter there. Such a theory is plausil)le, hut so far I have not lieard of 
ill resulting- from such removal of the air dried scrap. 

This coarse ruhher, l)y the way, was not ahsolutely clean; that is, 
it contained hits of hark, and vei^etahle matter oftentimes. As labor 
is so cheap, and there is |)lenty of water, it could he very easily washed. 
For this pur])ose the ordinar\ corruL;ated roll washer that is used in the 
ruhher factories has been suggested, hut it hardly fits the case, as the 
scraps are so very small. A more practical plan would he to run them 
through a winnowing machine such as is used to blow the dirt out of 




COAGULATING AND PkESSlXG I'ARA KUDI!ER. 



peas and beans and let the air blast take out as much bark as possible. 
Then, if necessary, use a washer of the paper engine type to wash and 
beat the rest out. Of course, for quick drying, the gum should then be 
sheeted, and either plain or corrugated rolls would accomplish that, and 
it cotild hang until drv. There is so little of the scrap, however, that 
the simple winnowing machine is probably all that would be necessary 
or profitable. 

The time will come, however, when the coagulating and drying will 
have to be done on a dififerent plan. The present method takes up too 
much room and is too slow. It would be perfectly easy to have coag- 
ulating pans that would deliver strips of rubber ten feet long, a foot 
wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. These strips could then be run 



56 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



through rolls that would squeeze the excess water out, and at the same 
time imprint the plantation name every few inches. Then the strips 
could be hung up to dry and any degree of artificial heat applied that 
was thought best. 

There have been suggested, also, a variety of quick coagulating 
devices, such as endless belts that take a film of milk into a dryine cham- 
ber and deliver it to the other side coagulated and dried. Some such 
plan may prevail, but as yet the planters are not ready for it. 

After many experiments the manager at Culloden has satisfied him- 
self that only the very early morning or the late afternoon are the proper 




MR. HARRISON S BUNGALOW, CULLODEN. 



times to tap, as in the middle of the day the flow of latex is almost 
nothing. The trees are therefore tapped from 4 until 7 a. :m., and after 
3.30 p. M. and as long as it is light. Indeed, the collection of the latex 
is often done by torchlight. As an instance of Mr. Harrison's alertness 
in getting all he can out of the trees with safety, he told me of a series 
of experiments that he was about to institute for all night tapping. It 
seems he learned that certain sugar estates did all their cutting of the cane 
by electric light, and that the amount of saccharine matter secured was 
much larger than in the daytime, and as the habit of the Hevea tree 



WA7) run M.iL.iY s'r.rr/is 



57 



pointed toward more laUw at ni^ht he fell tliat a similar exneriment 
would 1)0 justified. 

At the present time he keejis a careful record of the jiroductioii of 
each tree and for this pur])ose the trees are numhered. When a tree 
has a circumference of thirt\- inches it is fit to taj). whether it is five, 




ACK FRUIT. 



six. seven, or more years old. His first year's tapping in 1901 was 4.010 
trees, from which he secured 4,600 pounds of first quality Para. In 
1902 the production was about the same, the production for 190^ from 
8,300 trees being 10.500 pounds. From 2,500 trees on Heatherlv. which 
have just come in bearing, he gets 3,500 pounds. 

To show how thoroughly Air. Harrison is seeking for knowledge of 
the Hcz'ca, he has even had the 



leaves analyzed to know just what 
they get in the way of food from 
the soil of Culloden. The analysis 
is as follows : 



Fresh. Air Dried. 

Moisture 90.605^/^ 10.600% 

Organic matter . 8.510''? 85.150% 
Ash 849% 4-250% 



The analysis of the organic matter showed that it contained 3.696 
per cent, of nitrogen, while the ash showed as follows : 



58 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



.Potash 1.320% 

Phosphoric acid 398%' 



Lime 084% 

M^agnesia 2.1 1*7% 



Hence 1,000 pounds dried leaves would contain al)out four pounds 
phosphoric acid; 13.2 pounds potash; .8 pounds lime; 21. i pounds 
magnesia : and thirty-seven pounds nitrogen. From this it will be seen 
that the leaf is curiously rich in magnesia, ])ut whether from selection 
or force of circumstances it is difficult to say. 

Most of the work is done by contract, each coolie being expected to 
get later enough to produce one pound of dried rubber a da}'. It is 




VIEW OK ' HEVEA SIX MONTHS AFTER PLANTING. 



very interesting to watch them- as they troop up to the curing house 
early in the forenoon, with huge tin cans of latex on their heads, and to 
note how they watch the straining that none is slopped over, and even 
rinse cu])s, cans, and every recei)tacle and add it to the rest that no 
precious droj:) escape. 

The rubber landed in Colombo costs sixteen cents a pound. United 
States money. Just to let the skeptical do a little bit of thinking, and 
by the skeptical T mean the majority of rubber manufacturers who 



AND 'run M.ILAY SlAlliS 59 

])clicvc that the Tara from tlic Amazon is a better business proposition — 
just to start tlieni thinking, therefore, 1 want to ask them to read the 
f olio win l; : 

i"i.\i-: I'AKA Kri;i'.i:K from CEvr.ox. 

Sells at Liver])ool, per pound $1.20 

Costs f. o. 1). Liver])ool 17 

ICxjJort (lut_\- //// .17 

Planters" profit $1.03 




WILD "FICL'S ELASTICA. 



FINK I'ARA KlMiBFR FROM I'.RAZIL. 

Sells at Liverpool, per pound $1.00 

Costs f. o. h. Liverpool, minimum 21 

Export duty 23 .44 



Profit $0.56 



The above figures both for Ceylon and South America are very 
small — that is the cost figures. It is probable that twenty cents a pound 



6o 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



for cost in Ceylon would be nearer actual practise, while Para rubber 
costs, landed in Para or Alanaos, often forty, fifty, and sixt\- cents a 
pound, the figures being dependent upon the section that it comes from. 
As a matter of fact, the Tamil coolie whom the planters employ is 
not a high salaried individual. His pay averages about thirteen cents a 
day. United States money. To this is added the coolie "lines'" or houses 
which are free of rent to him. as is also medical attendance. The 
planters keep no stores usually. Init they do Inn- rice and furnish it at 




"HEVEa" ILANTElJ uSSy ; PHOTOGRAPHED I9O3. 



cost to their laborers, the allowance being one Inislul a week for a man, 
and three-quarters of a bushel for a woman. 

It was while sitting on the cool flags under the Ijroad porch at 
the Harrison bungalow that the subject of snakes came u]). Poth my 
host and his friend acknowledged that cobras were very plentiful, and 
that they had a great liking for cool bungalows, which thev sought to 
enter whenever they thought they could safelv do so. Thev said it was 
a very rare thing, however, for a white man to be bitten b\- one. But 
the natives are (jften bitten, and sometimes fatallv. The Sin<>alese won't 



AND Tim M.iL.i)- sr.rr/is 61 

kill tlicin. as thcN- think the cnhra (|uite' likcl\- to possess the soul of 
some (lead relative of theirs. The Tamils, however, have no such 
prejudice and are perfectly \villin<j to slau.^hter them whenever they can. 
My informants acknowledi^ed that the hite of the cohra was very venom- 
ous, hut not necessarily fatal. They said that some years hefore there 
had lixed in that district a man who was known as the cohra kiny, wlio 
not only cured snake hites in others, hut was proof against ])oisou Inm- 
self. He tised to tease the snakes to make them l)ite him. and e\en rub 
their venom into cuts on his arms, and a])parentl\- without the least 
injur}-. Hut he was finally attacked by a sort of rheumatism, which 
made him a helpless cripple, and he went hack to Enoland to ,s^et cured. 

Close to Culloden is Arapolakanda. where I next visited, heiuij^ 
entertained by the resident mana,qer, Mr. H. W T.a.^ot. He has but 
fifteen acres of Hcvca in bearing-, and i^ets twenty pounds a da\-. In 
coagulatino-, :Mr. Bagot did not follow exactly the process used bv his 
neighbor, Mr. Harrison, the diiTerence l)eing- this: he added no acid to 
hasten coagulation, and also smoked the rubljer over a fire of sawdust 
and bark. The tinal drying- was accomplished by spreading on wire 
screens, and not a pound was shipped until it was perfecth- drv and 
transparent. By the wa}-. he reported that he had one "dumb"' tree 
that was big-, thrifty, and apparently exactly like the others, but that 
it gave no milk. At the lower end of Arapolakanda are some acres of 
marsh land that have been drained and reclaimed and on which is 
standing some fine rubber. As this land is near the river, it is some- 
times inundated, the water standing four feet up on the trunks, but for 
a short time only. Mr. Bagot acknowledged that the trees were set 
back somewhat, but not very much. The general opinion in Ceylon, 
however, is that inundations are very apt to kill out the Hcvca. 

The oldest rubber on this plantation is some fifteen to eighteen 
years old, planted quite closely together in a sheltered nook. In this 
lot the outside trees which get the sun are by far the largest, one that 
I measured roughly being two feet in diameter and sixtv feet high. 
After having- seen all of the rubber. I examined the tea, saw what sights 
there were, and spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Bagot, at whose 
bungalow I slept. 

Very early the next morning, with a coolie carrying m\- luggage, I 
made my way to the river and climbing down its steep, clavey bank, 
found myself aboard the steamer Kaluganga. This craft was some 
sixty feet long and twelve feet wide, with a small wood-burning boiler 
and engine amidships. The forward deck was reserved for the whites. 



62 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



while the blacks huddled together at the stern. I had l)arel\- emljarked, 
when down came one of Mr. Wither's coolies with two steamer chairs, 
one of which he had thoughtfully l^rought for me. After a most ear- 
splitting whistle, the little steamer cas^t off and started down the deep, 
muddv stream. Shortly after leaving the pier, we passed the Clyde 
estate, which shows a large planting of tea and Para ruhlier. the trees 
voung, straight, and tall. The run down the river was a pleasant one. 




HF.VEA TREES AT SUNNYCROFT. 



but in no wav exciting, and earh- in the forenoon I took a train from 
Kalutara and was again back in Colombo. As I planned to leave for 
the Kelani Valley that afternoon, I went to the Grand Oriental Hotel 
for breakfast and a siesta, from which I was awakened by a pleasant 
voung reporter, who interviewed me most thoroughly. I want to say 
in passing that all through the East the newspaper men seemed alive 
to the importance of the rubber question, and ]jrinted many columns of 



AND run M.iL.w si'.iriis 63 

tilings that I did and didn't say. Wlirn he had fmislied with me I sum- 
moned Alis^uel and we tuok rieksliaws for Maradana junction station 
and there l)ou_nht ticl<ets for Karawanella. After a Mmiewliat tiresome 
ride in the train we reached our destination and I found Mr. W. For- 
sythe, (3f the Sunnycroft estate, awaiting- me with a verv swell ris^- 
consisting of a line horse and hioh cart. Into the tra]) i got, and Miguel 
hiring a huUock hackery, we clrove merrih off. The I'OrsNthe con- 
veyance soon left the other far behind, and as evening fell and it began 
to grow chilly, 1 was mo\ed to ask how much further Sunnycroft might 
be. 1 then learned that it was eight miles from the station, whereas 
1 had been told that it was two. As the road was constantK' ascending, 
it grew colder and colder, and as Miguel had mv coat, I suggested to 
Mr. Forsythe that I was in for a chill. He therefore stopped at the 
bungalow of a planter friend and secured a coat for me and our journev 
was then continued. Had it not been for the chill in the air. 1 should 
have enjoyed the ride mightily, as the road was most picturesque, wind- 
ing through native villages, crossing rivers and often crowded with 
strange conveyances. Mr. Forsythe entertained me verv pleasantly that 
night, and the next morning we walked some eight miles over his planta- 
tion. His land was exceedingly hilly, but under a high state of cultiva- 
tion, showing man}- hundreds of acres of line tea. He also had about 
three hundred Hcvea trees planted in 1897, which would average forty 
inches in circumference. In addition to this he had planted rubber 
everywhere through his tea, but very little of it was over two vears old. 
In his section he found that when the Hcvca trees were voung it was 
a constant fight to keep the porcupines and wild pigs from eating them. 
He was, therefore, protecting the young trees in certain sections with 
wire fences, the lower sides of which were buried in the ground. 

It was during this walk that I discovered what it meant to get 
chilled in a tropical climate, and to have the chill develop into an incipi- 
ent fever. Although the sun was scorching hot and I was exercising. 
I wasn't perspiring a particle. When we got back to the bungalow in 
the early afternoon, therefore, after due apology for being ill, I took 
twenty grains of quinine, and wrapping myself in blankets, went to 
sleep. The quinine or the blankets did the business, and the next morn- 
ing I was able to take a bullock hackery at five o'clock and rattle and 
bump down the mountain road to the railroad station, whence I took 
train for Colombo. 

The next day I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. F. Lewns, the 
assistant conservator of forests, who has done a srreat deal to further 



64 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

the planting interests in Ceylon, and whose opinions on ruljher are 
most sound. In the course of conversation, he acknowledged that 
he and his coworkers were continually on the outlook for the 
appearance of disease in the rubher. He said that wher- 
ever large areas of anything were cultivated, nature came forward 
with some disease or pest. He believed, however, that intelligence and 
vigilance would keep such visitations at least under control. I asked 
him specifically about his idea of distances in planting rubljer, and his 
conclusions were almost identical with my own, that it was well to 
plant closely at first, that weeds and grass might be kept down, and 
perhaps cut out the weaklings later. Of course, in planting through 
tea no such close setting can be indulged in. 

My visit to Ceylon was drawing rapidly to a close, as I was booked 
to sail on the Bengal on the 20th. Any further excursions that I took 
into the countrv were, therefore, of minor importance, and of adven- 
tures I had none except that little afifair wath the water bulTalo. It 
came about through my desire to see a paddy field at close range. I 
was some little wa}- out of town, and stepping down oft' the roadway 
walked out on the narrow bank of clayey mud that separated one rice 
plot from another. There were hundreds of these plots and miles of 
narrow earthworks, and I had gotten some distance out, when a huge 
water buft'alo, wallowing in the mud, made up his mind that I was an 
intruder, and started for me. As he weighed about a ton, and knew 
the country anvhow, I didn't stop to argue, but raced back for the road. 
I am considered a prettv fair runner, but I verily believe that the beast 
Avould have caught me if it hadn't been for a native who ran out with a 
switch and headed him off. The absurd part of it was that my rescuer 
was a mite of a boy, his only clothing being a red string round his waist, 
but he certainly knew the proper profanity to apply to water buffaloes. 

By the way, speaking of paddy fields, it seems a shame that the 
very best land of Ceylon should be given up to the culture of rice. If 
those same fields were drained and planted to Para rubber, there is no 
doubt but that thev would show an infinitely bigger profit, even if those 
who turned them into rul)l)er orchards paid, as an annual rental, the 
amount of rice that they are supposed to produce. 



.IXI) rilli M.IL.IY Sl.niiS Cr-, 



KII'TH LETTER. 

Dki'AUI I'KK IKOM t^OI.OM ISO FOR THE FEDERATED M.ALAY StATES — CHRISTMAS EN 

Route — Akkivai. at Singapore — The Botanic Gardens and Director Ridley — 
Successful Growth ok Hevea — Gathering Gutta-jelutong in the Jungle — 
Reboiling Gu tta-i'erch a 1!v the Chinese — A Visit to Johore — Starting for 
Salangor. 

MY second experience on a P. and ( ). l)oat was when 1 l)oarded the 
Bciti^al in Colomljo liarbor, beins;- taken off in a catamaran, 
whose crew seemed to enjov narrow escapes so much that they 
invited colHsion with every movini^ craft that came their way. Reference 
to my notes develops one fact that seemed of prime importance then, 
and that was that I sailed from Colombo on the 20th of December, and 
had received no mail at all while in Ceylon. In other words, I had got 
ahead of schedule time, and as a result was facing Christmas on a trop- 
ical sea with no holiday greetings. However, the Bengal sailed just 
the same. We got away soon after dark during an exceedinglv heavv 
rainfall. As there were only twelve passengers all told, I had a ver\- 
roomy, four-berth caliin to myself — a great comfort in tropical waters. 

The next morning I was up very early, took mv last look at the 
fading shores of Ceylon, and got well acquainted with a young planter 
from Penang who was so much interested in India-rubber that he 
described to me in detail the way the American importers bought it. 
"melted it up with sulphur and lampblack and sold it to the manufac- 
turers to be cast into goods." As we were still working south, the heat 
became even more tropical, yet we were forced to take much exercise 
to enjoy our meals. We therefore played ping pong, deck quoits, and 
cricket, being every now and then driven to the smoking room bv the 
floods of water that poured along the decks, in spite of top and side 
awnings. The air was exceedingly damp; one perspired constantlv, and, 
as one Briton expressed it, he felt like a chewed string. On December 
24, we sighted the island of Puloh Wea, which, having no awnings over 
it, was getting mighty wet, and on the following morning, which was 
Christmas, we entered the harbor at Penang at 6.30 o'clock. 

The rain had left us for a little, the sea was smooth, and all about 
us were l^rown-sailed Chinese junks and sampans with double pointed 
sterns, on which stood half naked dyaks with queer conical hats, sculling 
with exceeding skill. The harbor was crowded with foreign shippino-. 



66 



Ri'BBER PLAXTIXG IX CEYLOX 



all gaily decorated ivith flags, and as we cast anchor we had a good 
view of the town nestling at the foot of lofty mountains covered with 
verdure to their very summits. We all got read}- to go ashore and 
stood watching the swarming native boats containing money changers, 
curio sellers and jugglers. These gentry were not supposed to come 
aboard, but whenever they got a chance they ran their boats close to 
the ship's side, climbed the slender masts, and, swinging toward the 
vessel, caught hold of the edge of a port, and clinging tooth and nail, 
came aboard like so many monkeys. While we waited for permission 
to go shore we learned that the huge, two-story building fronting us, 
but, alas, an eighth of a mile away, was the custom house, and the factory 
plant a long distance away with four brick chimnevs was a tin smelter. 




JOHNSTON S PIER^ SINGAPORE. 



We were also informed that the town was not I'cnang, ])ut was George- 
town, Penang Ix-ing the name of the island on which the town was 
situated, an<l then all at once, when we were full of information, the 
anchor came uj) and we sailed away. At first we were verv much 
disgusted, but as we circled the island and struck into the Straits of 
Malacca in plain sight of the low lying shores covered 'with graceful 
cocoa-nut palms, with ranges (jf mountains in the distance, and as island 
after island a])peared in sight, each wilder and more jjeautiful than the 
last, we forgot our disappointment and became engrossed in the scenerv. 
Possibly to make us more good natured. we had a magnificent Christmas 
pudding that niglit and then a musicale on deck, at which the first 
officer sang and the f<iurtli officer ])ki}-ed. and all joined in games until 
it was time to retire. 



.-/A7^ I III-. MALAY SI A'lliS 



67 



It i^reu roui^ii in the nij^lil and tlu- ])a,!4an who pretended U) l(Jok 
after my comfort sli|)])ed in and closed the ])ort. which drove me on 
deck ver\ early in the morning", to find the day lovvery and dark, with a 
hi^h wind hlowing". 'I'oward night, however, the clouds had scattered, 
all except a great black mass that lay over Sumatra way. As the sun 
■dropped l)ehin(l this mountain (jf cloud, and sent its rays through it, 
lighting the interior, we looked into huge golden caverns, their crimson 
ceilings upheld by twisted columns and arches of fantastic design, while 
the light shining above the cloud mass flecked the sky to its furthest 
horizon with wonderful combinations of gold and pur[)le that held one 
breathless with awe and delight. 

After passing Malacca, which showed sim])l\- a white line close 
to the water's edge, so far awav was it. and man\- islets covered with 




MALAY VILLAGE "PULO BRAM SINGAPORE. 

[1 he huts all on supports, over water.] 

palms, we sighted Singapore about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. As the 
tide was not right, we couldn't take the nearest channel, but were 
obliged to go outside of the strongly fortified islands that form natural 
breastworks for the tine harbor, and by putting on all steam, we were 
able to get up to the P. and O. docks just as night fell. Those of us 
who were going to stop in Singapore went ashore at once, leaving 
our baggage to follow, and. in a square, box-like gharri drawn bv a 
little Burmese stallion, we drove by the Malay fishing village, around 
through the Kampong (dam to Ratfles Hotel, said to be the Jiofel de 
luxe of the East. There we had dinner and later took rickshaws and 
rode through the Chinese, ]\Ialay, and Japanese quarters, watching with 
■eager eyes the strange street scenes, listening to and trving to remember 



68 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



tlie grotesque calls of the street vendors, and iinally seeing and hearing 
so much that was new and strange that it was a relief to get back to 
the quiet hotel and turn in on a bed that had neither top sheet nor 
coverlet, because in that climate, even though the whole side of the rooiw 
was open to the night air, no such covering is necessary. In the morn- 
ing I had a new experience — a bath in Eastern fashion, for the bath room 
is a bit different from what the ordinary dweller in the temperate zone 
expects. It is cement tloored and gullied, with a huge urn in it from 
which one dips buckets full of water to pour over the body. In other 
words, one stands outside of the tub to bathe. To get info it is out of 
the question. 




(IRIHAKD ROAD, SINGAPORE. 



And now a word about Singapore. It was founded, so the English 
say, in 1819, by Sir Stamford RafHes. The real date was, however, 1283 
when it was founded by the Malays and became at once a general rendez- 
vous for their pirate craft. It is 8.000 miles from England, is the seat 
of government for the h>derated Malay States, and is a great and 
growing business center. In the census of igoi the population of the 
island was 184.554. ( )f this, 101.908 were Chinese, 35,000 Malays. 
7 6,000 natives of India, and 2,769 whites. The island contains two 
hundred and seven S(|uare miles and lies rather Iciw, the land being on an 
average from twenty to thirty feet al)ove sea level. The average mean 



,1X1) 'run M.ILAY S'r.lTliS 



69 



temperature in the shade is fri)m .So to (S5 " 1-'. '\'\k- rainfall in Sinj^apore 
and the ^hlla\• States is t'r( m ninety to two hundred inches. The city 
is under excellent control, the huildiui^^s in the husiness portion l^einj^j 
quite imposing, and the harhor, with its magnificent fortifications, most 
excellent. The visitor at once notes the strange mixture of races that 
place their impress on architecture, husiness, and modes of life. The 
naming of the streets is an example of this. hOr instance, there is 
Victoria Street and liukit Timah Road, together with Orchard Road 
and Teluk lUangah Road, and so on. 

After morning coffee, 1 took another ride through the crowded, 
Ijarharic, festering, native quarters, and had mv eyes opened to many 




FIELD OF PARA RUBKER ("HEVEA"). 

[In Singapore Botanic Gardens.] 



things. The European and business parts of the city are really very 
fine, and, except in the heat of the day, quite comfortable. It was not 
the rainy season, yet heavy showers came up almost every afternoon, 
and although it was cooler in the evening it was still hot and damp, 
and few of the hotel people showed much energy. Xor did they take 
anv especial interest in the wants of their guests. Xo time tables were 
obtainable, nor was it possible to discover from the clerks anything 
about the departure of trains, the sailing of steamers, or the time when 
the postoffice would be open. They were not in the least discourteous, 
but simply weary and vacuous. 



70 



RUBBER PLAXTIXG IX CEYLOX 



In spite of the midday scorching sun, in which all of ni}- spare 
clothing was spread to kill the mildew, I took a rickshaw and rode 
out over Orchard Road to the botanic gardens. I was most hospitably 
received by Director Henry N. Ridley, f. l. s., and shown all of the 
various rubber and gutta trees and vines that he has so industriously 
collected. The Hevca was naturally my first concern, and I found Mr. 
Ridley most willing to talk about it, as he has long advocated its very 
general planting, and certainlv the soil is excellent and the trees respond 
to cultivation wonderfully. From one hundred cultivated trees on an 
estate in Perak, Mr. Ridley has taken nine hundred pounds of Para 
rubber in one season's tapping, and from nine to twelve pounds have been 
taken from a number of trees in the peninsula, but planters do not always 




SHOOTS FROM A FALLEN HEVEA TRUNK. 

[With view of Director H. N. Ridley.] 

get such returns. He has also taken three pounds from a single isolated 
three-year old tree. The growth here is phenomenal, a tree eighteen 
months old sometimes standing thirty feel high, while three-year-olds 
often attain a height of sixty feet. I found in these gardens the Hcvca 
growing in a variety of soils, and all apparently thrifty. For example, 
high up on a gravelly hillside, were a half hundred trees that were eight or 
ten years old, and sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter. These were 
planted in partial shade, but had outdistanced all surrounding growths. 
The other extreme from this was a large planting where there were 
but six inches of soil aliove water, the soil being often submerged but 
draining off verv quickly, llere the trees grew well, but were apt to 



AND 'nil-: M.IL.W ST. IT lis 



71 



1)0 blown over because of tluir shallow rootiiiL;'. 'l"o show how icnacious 
(jf life the tree is, it is oiiK necessary to examine the photograi^hs of 
many such trees that, blown over, took fresh root from the to])s and 
sent up shoots that soon (levelo])C(l into sturdy tree trunks. I counted 
seven such trunks sprinmin^' from one prostrate stem, each trunk biiL^ 
enous;h to tap, and full of latex. 

Another ex])eriment in distance ])lantinj4- was a row of seventeen 
trees that were set six feet aijart, that although tliev were onI\- ei^ht 




CLTTA-JELCTOXG TREE. 

[Botanic Gardens, Singapore.] 



years old, were two feet in diameter and showed a magnificent leaf area. 
These, of course, had the sun on both sides, and thus came along- faster 
than if in partial shade. The number of Hciwi trees in the gardens 
now readv for tapping is 1.300. A still further experiment with the 
Hevca was the planting of the seed in specially- prepared beds, in which 
a varietv of different manures was jilaced. The photograph tells the 
whole storv and would seem to point to cow dung as the best food for 
young Hevca. The soil in the gardens is not particularly rich, being 



y2 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

of a red, gravell}- character, showing traces of iron, but the moisture 
and the sunHght make up for what it may lack. 

Next after the Hcvca I wanted most to examine the tree that 
produces the Gutta-jelutong, or Pontianak gum. I found that it was 
very common all through the Federated Malay States, and that the 
gum was rarely taken from it, the tree being regarded as useful only 
for the cheap clogs that the natives wear. The tree is botanically the 
Dycra costiilata and when mature is a splendid forest creation. One in 
the gardens, of which I haye a photograph, was certainly one hundred 
and fifty feet high, with a huge three part trunk, and a magnificent crown 
of leaves. We did not tap this one, but went into the jungle, found a 
wild one, and tapped it after the most approved method. The kitcx 
oozed out like clotted cream and seemed most abundant, but began to 
coagulate almost at once. It is said that a mature tree produces as 
much as one hundred pounds, by scraping the bark rather than tapping, 
and mixing at once with kerosene. 

In the bit of jungle where we found the Pontianak tree, there was 
killed only a few days before a thirty-foot python, that had not been 
thought a particularly undesirable neighbor until he swallowed a couple 
of Mr. Ridley's swans, which ended his career. 

The Casfilloa in the gardens did not seem to be in a very flourish- 
ing condition, nor did the Ceara rubber trees, although both have been 
carefully experimented with. The former seemed to be stunted, while 
the latter was apt to develop hollow stems. A further trouble with 
the Casfilloa came about through its habit of shedding its temporary 
Ijranches, which gives a nice, sheltered, tender spot for the beetles, of 
which they often avail themselves. There was also a most luxuriant 
growth of the IJllliighbcia iiniia, but it was such a tangle that it would 
be almost impossible to get any rubber out of it economically. Indeed, 
I have yet to find anyone that has experimented with the culture of 
a vine that is a rubber producer who has any faith at all in it. The 
WiUngJibcia, however, when wild, produces a good grade of rubber 
that is known as "Borneo,"" and is very easily coagulated after tapping. 
There were also a great variety of Gutta-percha trees, together with 
the Picns and the Kick.via, to which we devoted considerable attention. 

Director Ridley is a most charming companion, and as he often 
takes long journeys into the forests accompanied only by the wild men, 
his stories of adventure are very interesting. His guides, b}- the way, 
never can understand his interest in insects or plants, except upon the 
hypothesis that he is after ingredients to make "gold water," a magic 



AND THE MALAY STATUS 73 

li(Hii(l that the white man is ahvavs Noarniiii;' to make and which will 
ttirn an\thing into i^old. The type of coolie in Malaysia is, however, 
far superior to that in Ceylon. They are hetter formed, stronger, and 
far more self respecting. Xor do the\- call the white man "master"; 
to them he is "'tuan"" (sir). 

There are man\- tigers in the Malav peninsula and some in the 
island of Singapore. In the hit of jungle where we secured the latex 
of the Gutta-jelutong there often lurked a tigress who swam over 
from the main land and had her nest there. As a rule they are trouble- 
some onlv as they steal the Chinamen's pigs, and while there is now 
and then one who gets to be a man eater, it is not European meat that 
thev seek, l>ut the flesh of the coolies. Thev are ver\- clever and hide 
themselves so well that one may almost step on them in going through 
the jungle. Once they are discovered, however, they charge for the 
intruder, uttering a tremendous roar. If they are not wounded and 
the charge is avoided, thev slip off into the jungle and are almost instantly 
lost to sight. There is a record of a large tigress with two cubs that 
terrorized twenty miles of w^ell traveled road, killing on an average a 
coolie a day for months. She was finallv killed by a spring gun, but 
the cubs escaped. They did not turn out to be man eaters. The tigers 
are fond also of killing the water buffalo. To do this they hunt in 
pairs, one cutting the creature out of the herd, while the other lies in 
wait, and at the right moment springs on his victim, seizes it by the 
neck. and. leaping high in the air. throws the wdiole weight of his body 
in such a way that the neck is instantly broken. Referring again to the 
man eaters, they kill their prey by a stroke on the neck, and in feeding 
eat only the coolie's legs. 

The most vicious beast in Malaysia, and one that both Europeans 
and natives dread, is a bison, something like that of India, only larger. 
It is a huge animal, six feet high at the wdthers, short legged, and heavy 
bodied. It lives in the forests, feeds on fruits, and usually attacks man 
on sight. They are very hard to kill and are the dread of the foresters. 
It is easily the largest ox in the world, and by far the most dangerous. 

There are, of course, many snakes, and of them the cobra seems 
to be the best known. The Singapore cobra is a much more vicious 
appearing reptile than is its cousin of Ceylon, and with different habits. 
It is known as the black cobra and rarely bites, choosing rather to 
eject the poison at the eyes of its enemy, and at eight or ten feet distance 
it is a pretty fair shot. If the eye is not at once treated by some sort 
of alkali, or if the venom gets in an open wound, the results are quite 



"4 



RUBBER PLAXTIXG IX CEYLOX 



serious. While I was at the hotanic gardens. Air. Ridlev was treating" 
the eyes of his fox terrier, who had just killed a cobra, and in the fight 
got his eves full of poison. 

Returning from the botanic gardens, 1 called uj^on Messrs. Hutt- 
nach Brothers, to whom I had letters of introduction. They are large 
traders, sending shiploads of rattan from Singapore, and liringing great 
cargoes of coal from Japan. They are also agents for tin mines in 
Johore, and incidentally handle much ( iutta-percha. ' They were of the 





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Pm 


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H 'mJ^ 






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jfti^^^^t^^t 






/^ife'fe?^; 





MAL.VY HOUSE IN JOHORE. 

opinion that the .Marconi svstem was already affecting the gutta market, 
as there was much stock in Singapore, and according to their advices, 
a great deal unsold in England. Through their courtesy I w'as taken 
to the Chinese merchant (|uarters and shown the reboiling process that 
prepares the gutta for the markets of Europe and .America. AVe first 
visited the offices and storehouses of the Teck Wah Liong Co., where 
we met the senior member of the firm, a very polite, intelligent Celestial 
who s])oke good English. ( )ur interview took ])lace in a fine anteroom 
furnished in Chinesf fashion, with man\- sturd\- ebonv chairs set close 



./.\7) 77//: M.iL.n' sr.rriis 



7S 



to the walls, \\liik' lnii;c laiilenis hunj^- from tlic ceiling-. In the rear 
rooms were many brick tanks about 20X20 feet and rtve feet liij.,''h. covered 
with cement, in which the .s^utla was stored under water. The floor was 
tiled and piled high with blocks and rolls of i^utta. which, to keep 
off oxidization, was fre(|uently wet down liy turninj^ a stream of water 
on it by means of a hose. Although the\- were e(|ui])])e(l with relxiiling 
tanks, none were then in use, so we were taken to a nearbv warehouse 
where the work was in ])rogTess. 

The ( lUtta-percha as the reljoilers receive it comes in large crumbly 
cakes. These cakes are ])ut in a tank and boiled in hot water, after 




NEW .MOHAMMEDAN .MOSUUE, JOHOKE VIEW FRO.M SEASIDE. 



which tile mass is run through a large mangle turned bv two coolies 
and fed by a third. It is next dumped into a tank of cold water, allowed 
to cool, and then stacked up to dry out. After drying it is cut into 
shreds by coolies who use great cleavers for the purpose, and it is 
again boiled, and sheeted, and cooled as before. The same process is 
gone through with a third time, but when the sheets come from the 
mangle this time the gutta is folded int(T neat rectangular blocks and is 
readv for market. The boiling, sheeting, and cooling, tcnighens the 



76 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

gutta appreciably and also allows of certain admixtures that are sup- 
posed to be suited to some grades. For example, in some of the lower 
grades a modicum of Pontianak is often introduced. All the gutta that 
I saw was said to have come from Borneo in small lots, though my 
informants told me that they received shipments occasionally from the 
Philippines. 

I had heard so much of Johore and its young and athletic sultan 
that I had a desire to see it at close range. I was, therefore, much grati- 
fied by an invitation from the chief of the agricultural bureau there. 
Mr. F. H. M. Staples, to pay him a visit. I knew that I should miss 
the sultan, as rumor had it that he had taken $200,000 in gold and 
started for Europe for a vacation from the cares of state. A brief 
rickshaw ride from the hotel took me to the Johore and Kranji railroad, 
where in the "first class waiting shed," as the sign on the wall had it, 
I waited for my train. When it appeared I got aboard and again waited. 
After a time the dusky hued master came out and rang a big dinner 
bell most energetically, which was the signal to start. Still we waited 
and waited, but finall}- reluctantly pulled out. The ride across the 
island is short and pleasant, and is through many plantations and some 
jungle, and terminates at a ferry where a steamer transfers the passengers 
to the domain of the sultan. Mr. Staples was awaiting me and was 
good enough to put me up at the Johore Club, and I had tifiin with 
him at the sultan's hotel. In the afternoon we drove out to the rubber 
plantation, which is about three miles from the town, and which now 
consists of some fifty acres of Ficiis clastica cjuincunxed with Para. 
As all the manure from the dairy farm is to be used on this plantation, 
the rubber should come on very rapidly. In addition to what is already 
planted, large clearings are being made, corn being first planted with 
the rubber for shade. On my return I had a look at the native village, 
went again over to the hotel and club, where I met the postmaster gen- 
eral, the chief electrician, and the Datto Abul Rahmin. admired some 
fine pictures of the sultan, and returned to Singapore. 

1 before I knew it I was facing the new year, and as New Year's 
day came on Friday, the rest of the week was taken by all as a period 
of rest. This suited me physically, for I was exceedingly languorous, 
but not mentally, as I longed to be up and doing. 1 gave up to the 
climate, however, and idled. Indeed, the wish to remain quiet grew on 
me to such an extent that had there been then more days of it I think 
I should have stayed in Singapore. My bedroom boy. Poo Kee, a short, 
chunky, good humored Chinaman, made ever\thing as easy as possible 



.IXn 11 Hi M.ILAY ST. IT IIS 



77 



for nic. When I ordered a liottle of .\])olliiiaris lie l)rou,i;lit ink. and 
I never eonld o-^t hini out of llu- habit of starting- tlie water runninit^ 
in tlie Ixitliroom and leaving- me to turn it otT. 

Durini;- my enforeed idleness I did ^o down to the Itilliard room 
and play a few shames, hut more to hear the markers chant the score 
in Malay than for the fun of the ^;niie. To he sure 1 roused u]) one 
evening and went out to see some tiftx rickshaw men trv to thrash tw<j 
Russian sailors who would not ])a\- for their rides, hut it was more like 
a game of tag than a fight. 

On New Year's morning there were sampan races in the harbor, 
where the native boatmen displayed surprising skill, and the spectators 







h^ J^ 1 






—tuf^ji^-JiS^^ISL 



1 STAN A OF THE SULTAN OF SELANGUK. 

grew wildly enthusiastic in spite of the fact that it was exceedingh- hot 
and the glare of the sun on the water was almost unbearable. The 
heavy rain that came up early in the afternoon, but lasted onlv an hour, 
did not discourage the merrymakers, and as great crowds were going out 
to the racetrack to see the natives compete with one another in a varietv 
of sports, I went too. The turf around the track was sodden with water 
and the track heavy, but in spite of it all there were obstacles races, treacle 
dipping for silver coins, rickshaw, jMiny, and hurdle races that were 
both ludicrous and interesting. As on the evening before there had 
been a great dinner followed by a dance at the Raffles Hotel, and at 
midnight "Auld Lang Syne" and "God Save the King"" had ushered 
in the New Year, I could but feel that it had been hcartih- weTcomed. 



78 



RUBBER FLAXTIXG IX CEVLOX 



In the meantime several warm invitations had come to me from 
planters up in the "States"" to visit them and have a look at their rubher. 
I therefore decided to go up to Selangor, where as far as I could judge, 
I was likely to see rubber that would typify what that part of the world 
could produce. Not that the oldest Hevea was there, indeed some one 
told me, I do not remember whom, that the largest and oldest Hevea 
trees in the Federated Malay States were destroyed by mistake some 
years before. It seems that a former official ordered some Dyak ser- 




VIEW ON THE PLANTATION OF THE SELANGOR RUBBER CO., FEDERATED MALAY STATES 

["Hevea and "Ficus" interplanted.] 



vants to tap the trees and they, supposing that the flow of latex would 
be immediate and aliundant, as it is with the Ficus, and finding the case 
the reverse, reported that the trees were barren. They were, therefore, 
cut <l(>\vn. much to the sul)se(iuent regret of all. 

The l)oat that was to take me to Selangor is known as the Sappho, 
and in order to get aboard of her you ortler a gharri to lie at the hotel 
at three o'clock in the afternonn and the man will come at one and try 
to charge nou for the two hours' wait. 1 le doesn't really exjiect to get 
the extra i)fi\'. however, and will respect you more if }ou don't give 



AND 'I'HIi M.IL.D' SLITliS 79 

it to him. Tic leaves you at Johnson's ])ier at ahmil 3.15. where the 
coohe who takes \()ur lu.^'gat^e in charg-e informs you that the launch 
to the Sa/^l^lio, advertised to leave at .^30, has i;one. It is. therefore, 
your dul\- to engage a sampan, and get its owner to put you ahoard. 
This is rcalh- more fun than it is to go in the launch, ])rovided it is not 
raining. All this 1 did. ( )nce ahoard, I found that the Saf^f^lio was a 
steamer of three hundred and twenty-nine net tons, and, according to 
the written statement of some dock official, had sufficient rice, fuel, and 
water for the voyage. I was, therefore, content. 1 had a very comfort- 
able stateroom and soon made the acquaintance of two young English 
mining- engineers who had come down to Singapore for the holidays, 
were going to get ofif at Malacca and then ride fifty miles on bicycles, 
mostlv u]>hill, to their station. 



8o 



RUBBER PLANTING JN CEYLON 



SIXTH LETTER— CONCLUSION. 

Rubber Plantations at Klang, in Selangor — Mr. Bailey and His Work — 
Distance of Planting — Age at Which Hevea Trees- Yield — The Labor Ques- 
tion — Mr. Carey's Planting — The Chinese as Rubber Planters — The Selan- 
gor Rubber Co. — Return to Singapore and Departure for Hong Kong. 

DURING the nig-ht spent on the Sa/^pho, on the trip from Singapore 
to Selangor, we passed through a succession of heavy showers, 
but the sea was smooth and it was cool enough to be fairly 
comfortable. The meals aboard the boat were also good, and the native 
servants as intelligent as it paid them to be. At eight the next morning 




FOUR YEAR OLD "HEVEA, KLANANG ESTATE. 



we stopped at Port Dickson, where there is a good harbor, with an iron 
pier and a few bungalows and native houses set down in the jungle. 
After discharging freight we left, following the coast about three miles 
out. The land was low, wooded down to the w^ater's t^(\g;t with an occa- 
sional break where a river discharged its muddy flood into the clear 
water of the Straits. 

In due time 1 reached Port Swettenhani, where a short railroad 
journev took me to Klang. The station master then told me that 1 could 



AND Tim MALAY STATES 



8i 



safely trust the ricksliaw man to take nic to Mr. W. W. I'.ailcv's l)un- 
galow, where 1 had been invited to make m\- liead(|uartcrs. He evidenth 
knew the name, for he g-rinned. said '*l>ailee,"" and started olY. l-'ar out 
into the country he took me. perspiring profusely, but keeping- steadilv 
at it. ( )n the way we ])assed considerable plantations of Hcvca, which 
I examined with interest. Finally he stopped at a gateway and pointed 
out a hillside bungalow and again said 'i)ailee" and intimated that 
he was ready to be paid. I did not ([uite share his contidence. however, 
and insisted that he accompany me up to the house, which with some 
reluctance he did. And it was lucky that 1 did so, for it soon developed 
that this was the bungalow of the ])lantation superintendent, who was 
absent, the hcmse being in charge oi the native servants. Xot sj^eaking- 




A RIVER VIEW FROM KLAXG. 



much Malay and they knowing no English, it was a bit difficult for 
me to make them understand what I wanted, but iinalh- one of them 
mounted a bicycle and. inviting us to follow, led us back to Klang. and 
up to the real I'ailey lumgalow. The house was most beautifully situ- 
ated on a slight eminence with beautiful palms, foliage plants, and flowers 
in its gardens, and a view in the distance of the lofty istana of Selangor's 
sultan. 

1 was at once cordially welcomed by Mr. Bailey and his beautiful 
wife, and entertained most delightfully. The next morning we drove 
over the road that I had traveled twice the dav before, and went thor- 
oughly over both Lowlands and Highlands estates. After stopping at 
the bungalow of the superintendent, from which we had a fine view of 



82 



RUBBER PLAXTJXG IN CEYLON 



acres of Hczca. we drove by the coffee mill, and the coolie lines to the 
extreme end of Lowlands, where the very last planting had been done. 
This was in alluvial soil divided up into parallelograms by drains that 
were four to five feet wide and from three to six feet deep. The soil 
was wonderfully rich and was not planted with Hci'ca seeds but three 
foot stumps, as the seeds and the tender shoots have so many animal 
and insect enemies that stumping is far more successful. These stumps 
are nursery plants cut back into the brown, set out carefully and never 
shaded. Not only is the top cut back, but the tap root is shortened a 
bit to prevent doubling, and the laterals are also trimmed a little. 

This planting is done in any month of the year when the rains are 
on. In preparing, the ground holes are dug fifteen to eighteen inches 




MR. bailey's bungalow, klang. 

in diameter and about the same number of inches deep, the hole being 
left open for two weeks, after which a little of the surface soil is scraped 
in. Then the plant is set and carefully covered in. The trees that are 
ready for tapping are selected, not by their age but from their size. 
For a general rule anv Hczra that is thirty inches in circumference, three 
feet from the ground, is large enough to produce rubber. In a planta- 
tion in a good location in this ])art of the world, the trees mature about as 
follows: At the end of the fifth year about 25 per cent, will 
be large enough to tap; at the sixth year there will be 50 per cent., 
and at the seventh all of them should be big enough. 



AXD Till: M.II.AY SlWriiS 



83 



Spcakinj^' as^ain of tlie draiiias^c system at Lowlands, it was niarvcl- 
(luslv complete, all of the channels leadin,^' into the ^reat agricultural 
drain that ran through the middle of the ])lantation, and which, I believe, 
Avas a government enter|)rise. 

In examining the ])lanlation w f walked over good i)aths hv the si<le 
of the drains, crossing them on tree trunk bridges, and ended bv driving 
over two very good roads that led to the heart of the ])lanting. The 
oldest rubber on Lowlands was some five himdred acres of tive-vear 




FOUR YEAR OLD PLANTED "FICUS. 

I On the Lowlands and Highlands estate. Showing the Aerial 
Roots as thrown down at this age. Hcvca trees in the 
background.] 



old trees, ntunbering 52.000. These had been later interplanted with 
•another 52,000 of varying ages. There were also one hundred and twenty 
acres of two-year old trees. 18.000 in number. The largest five-year olds 
that I saw were twenty-seven inches in circumference, three feet from 
the ground, and were in a lot that was planted 20X20 feet. Speaking of 
distances observed in planting. ]Mt. Bailey had tried many experiments. 
He had plots 14X14. 14X28, 14X42, 14X20. and 24X2J. feet. The 
latter plantings were almost all interplanted later with Ficiis clastica. 
There was also considerable cofifee in with the rubber, and as it happened 
to be of an especiallv fine quality, at that time it was paving all of the 
expenses of the planting anrl care of the rubber. 



84 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



The laborers were a mixed lot. being Tamil, Chinese, and Javanese 
coolies. The Tamils are rather hard to get but are fairlv good laborers ; 
the Chinese coolies are good rough laborers but are not the equal of 
the Javanese. As there is a glut of labor in Java there is a likelihood 
that the planters in the Malay states will be able to get many of them, 
and as they all speak Malay and are content with thirty-five to forty 
cents, Mexican, a day, and find themselves, they are much sought after. 
Besides they would far rather work for an Englishman than a Dutchman. 




RUBRER PLANTATION VIEW IN SELANGOR, FEDERATED MALAY .'-TATES. 

[Four year old "Ficus" — Selangor Rulil)er Co.] 



After visiting Highlands estate and looking over the cofifee mill. 
Air. r)ailey took me for a drive out in the outskirts of Klang, that I 
might see the small plantings of the Chinese. These were of no especial 
moment, being chiefly coffee gardens growm up with grass, with a few 
I'icKs clasfica or Hci'ca trees put in at haphazard. One Chinaman, Cong 
I.amb, however, had about twenty acres of coffee and Hcvca planted 
15X15 feet, the trees looking about five years old and (|uite well grown. 

But the plantations owned by Chinamen and run by Europeans are 
another matter: for example, the Kong Yaik estate, which is managed 



/A7; 77//: M.I L.I]- ST. IT US 



85 



I)y Air. I{. \'. Carey. Here arc three hundred acres containing- some 
60,000 trees that averag-e three years of ao^e. Most of this rnl)lx-r is 
planted 20X10 feet. ahh()u,!-li tlierc is some loXio and 15X15. < )ne 
advantaj:;:e of the 10X10 plantin-;- was that almost no weedino- was 
necessary, the o:round l)ein,o- al)sohitely free from all ve,<,^etation. Wliile 
o:oing- over this plantation Air. Carey and 1 experimentid with a two- 
handled tapi)ino- knife, an invention of his, whicli certainly did very 
ettective work. 




RUBBER PLANTATION VIEW IN SELANCOR, FEDERATED MALAY STATE;^ 

[Five year old "Hevea" — Pataling Estate.] 



Next to the estate of which Mr. Carey has charoe is the I'>atu L'njor 
plantation owned hy a wealthy Chinaman, Loke Yew, on which there 
are some 17,000 four and one-half year Hcz'cas which looked tirst rate. 

The land in Selangor helongs to the state and is accpiired by the 
payment of two dollars, Alexican, an acre cash, and one dollar an acre 
annual rental in perpetuity ; twenty-five per cent, of the land nnist be 
under cultivation within five years, or it reverts to the g-overnment. At 
the same time the powers that be are very lenient and disposed to help all 
honest etTort by granting; time extensions. There is also a two and one- 



86 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



half per cent, ad z'aloreiii export duty on such products as rubl^er that 
is a part of the land grant. 

That evening- many friends of Mr. Bailey "s drojiped in and dined 
and later visited the Klang Club, where I met a score or more of young 
Englishmen who were connected either with the government or with 
the plantations in the neighborhood.' 

The next morning my host took me bv rail to Batu Tiga. where is 
another big rubber plantation in which he is interested — the Selangor 
Rubber Co., or, in the native, Sungei Rengam. We put in three hours 




RUBBER PLANTATION VIEW IN SELANGOR, FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 

[Panoramic view of the Highlands and LowLinds Estate.] 



of hard tramping over this estate, and got very hot and damp. But 
it was well worth while. 

The plantation is seven miles from Klang, on the railroad that joins 
Klang with Kula Lumpur. There is also a fine government road soon 
to go through this estate. It consists of 5,150 acres, of which 1,150 are 
alreadx- opened and in rubber. To this will be added three hundred 
acres this vear, the trees being planted about twt) hundred to the acre. 
The soil is a rich alluvial, slighth- r(*lling. and is cut ])\ huge draius that 



AND run M.iL.n: status 



87 



lead into the Klani; and the Damansara River. The oldest plantinij^ was 
made in May, i8(;,S, and was 24X36 feet, this plantintr being quincunxed 
in the latter part of the same year and in (;)ct()l)er, 1900, was still further 
interplanted. The last planting, iKnvever. is so thoroughly shaded by the 
earlier that it is doubtful if it amounts to anything. The trees in the 




"hkvea" ox the vallambrosa estate, klaxg. 



first planting average 28^ inches in circumference, three feet from the 
ground, the largest being forty-seven and 52^ inches in circumference. 
Of the plantings already mentioned, there were ninety acres 24X36 
feet, and forty-five acres 14X14. These latter showed an average of 
29^ inches circumference at the base, and nineteen inches live feet from 



88 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

the ground. In 1899 there were thirty acres planted 12X12 and ninety 
acres 14X14- The former measured when I was there, on an average, 
twenty-six inches at the hase and sixteen inches five feet from the 
ground. In 1900 there were two hundred and eighty-five acres put 
into Para and forty-seven acres in "ramhong" or Ficns clasfica. There 
are also various other plantings of Para and Ficits. alternating, of Para and 




CUTTING A KOAIl THROUGH JUNGLE. 



coffee, and of Ficiis alone. The Ficits, when alternated with Para, seems 
to do wonderfully well, as does also the Para. 

The greatest care is taken of this plantation, the whole area heing 
weeded hy hand until the shade hecomes so dense that no weeds grow, 
all of the aerial roots of the Ficus heing cut awav except those that 



WA7J 77//:" MALAY S'lAlliS 89 

\vill develop into good straight trunks, and the keenest sort of watcH 
being kept for white ants, which are always to be found in the new 
land. As tapping will l)c'gin the next year, a rubl)er curing house 20X60 
feet has been built, and all ])reparations are being made for turning 
out the best (|ualit\- of rubber. All of the trees seem to produce latc.i 
abundantly, although there was a wide difference in the appearance 
of the bark, some being (|uite white, while others showed a distinct shade 
of red. There were a variety of theories as to the cause of this, but 
the real reason was not a])])arent. 

After the examination of the Sclangor estate, and a verv ])leasant 
visit with the manager, at his bachelor bungalow, where, by the way, 
he presented me with a cane made of polished sections of a great variety 
of hard woods indigenous to that countr\-, we again trjok train and 
started for the Pataling estate. The road ran for some miles through 
the densest sort of jungle, the land on one side for some six miles being 
owned ])v the Selangor com])any. Wlien we reached Pataling we found 
that the superintendent, Mr. Rendle, was awaw as was also his wife. 
His assistant, Mr. Smith, was there, however, and he urged us to come 
up to the bungalow, which was prettih- located on an eminence over- 
looking the plantation, and ordered the Malay servant to ])repare for 
us "mukan," in other words, food. While we ate, it rained very heavily, 
but soon after cleared up and we were so sure that the storm was over 
for the day that we allowed a black bov to take our mackintoshes down 
to the station while we examined the rubber. The soil here seemed 
a trifle hard and was more hilly than that which I had before examined, 
but the rul)ber looked well. After examining that on the hillsides we 
went down to a lower level and were just beginning to take measureiuents 
when the rain came down in torrents. We each selected a big tree, 
under which we stood for a while, but ere long even that was no pro- 
tection, so we started for the railway station. W'e were now drenched 
to the skin and the walking was very bad. We, however, caught our 
train, and in due time arrived in Klang, where, after a change of cloth- 
ing and a substantial dinner, we felt as well as ever. 

1 had hoped to have time to run down to Port Dickson and visit 
Mr. \'. R. Wickwar. who has a fine plantation of Hcvca, but I found 
my time would not admit of it. Xor did I visit the Pears plantation 
in Muar, as the owner, to whom I had letters, was absent in England. 

Speaking of close planting and hand weeding, I could not but be 
struck with the fear that the planters have of fire. ]\Ir. Bailev, who 
at one time had charge of a large plantation in Johore. told me that 



90 



RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 



the -fire once got into some thousands of acres of his sago, and although 
he had five hundred men of his own and nine hundred lent him by the 
sultan, thev were weeks in getting it under. He had, bv the way. some 
hundreds of acres of Ceara rubber which were also destroyed. 

There is little Castilloa planted in Selangor. I saw a little on Low- 
lands, which bled freely, but the planters do not care for it, as they 
believe that either the Hevea or the Ficus is superior. The latter tree 
is or course a native of this land, and grows to great size. There are 







VIEW (IX THE I'l.AXTATIOX OF THE SELAXGOR RUBBER CO.. FEDERATED MALAY STATE.- 

["Hevea" planted April, iqco.| 



reports of as much as one hundred pounds l)eing taken from a single 
tree. Ten-year-old trees are said to produce from twelve to fifteen 
pounds. 

The time came all too soon for lue to say goodbye to the Baileys, 
whose generous hospitality I shall always remember, and the following 
forenoon saw me in a sampan headed for the Sal^[^ho, which lay far out 
in the river. I got aboard finally, and was greeted by Captain Foster 
like a long lost friend. The voyage back to Singapore was uneventful, 
the sea being perfectlv smooth, and the temperature bearable. 



.L\L) Til J: MALAY S'J.lThS 



91 



'I'owards evenino; we came in siqht of Malacca, but. imicli to ni\ 
regret, did not ^ct a chance to t;o ashore. In fact, cjur captain being' in 
a hiuTN , we iVu\ not even anchor, but hove to in the open roadstead and 
there received tlie aj^ent, tiie health ot^cers, port warden, and a few 
pa.ssengers. Here at Malacca is quite a large plantation of Hci'ca owned 
by a Chinaman, who speaks good English and who is the proud possessor 
of some 300,000 rul)l)er trees. I wanted niightih to have a look at it, 
but time did not ])ermit. 








^'•tSE 



YOUNG "HEVEA seedlings IN BEDS, IN MANURE TEST. 

[No. 2.] Poudrette. [No. ,^.] Mixed Lime and Soil. [No. 4.] Burnt Earth and Leaves. 
[No. 5.] Cow Dung. [No. 6.] Burnt Earth. 



Again in Singapore I called tipon Mr. Aflurra}'. a partner of Mr. 
Bailey's, who had in the beginning smoothed my way appreciably, had 
tiflfin with him. at the Singapore Club, and then hurried to get my pas- 
sage arranged for on the Malta to Hong Kong. By the way. I took 
from Mr. Murray two bottles of oil made from the nuts of the Hc:-ca, 
which were packed as carefully as possible and which were all right 
until the strenuous baggage smashers of the L'nited States got hold of 



92 RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 

I was also fortunate enough to have the time for another rickstiaw 
ride over Orchard Road to the Botanic Gardens. Here I found that 
Director Ridley's right hand man, Mr. De Alweis, had made a set of 
photographs for me that embraced the whole of their varied growths of 
India-rubber and Gutta-percha trees. One of the most striking of these 
was the photograph of the Hcvca seed beds, in which the effect of various 
manures was shown. The experiments covered the use of poudrette, 
mixed lime and soil, burnt earth and leaves, cow dung, and burnt earth. 
As may be seen in the illustration on this page, the rubber trees planted 
with cow dung far surpassed all the others in height and sturdy growth. 

The next day I said farewell to Singapore and was well on my way 
to China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, San Francisco, and home; that 
in brief is the finish of my visit to the rubber plantations in the Far East. 

On my way home I met those who were deeply interested in rubber 
culture, as a future development of the rich lands in French Indo China, 
British North Borneo, and Sumatra — in fact, wherever there is the con- 
junction of proper soil, climate, and cheap labor. Even the Japanese are 
preparing to plant rubber in Formosa. In the Philippines there is little 
present interest, as the shutting out of Chinese and Javanese labor makes 
the installation and care of a plantation far too costly to be remunerative. 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 
ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 



FIRST LirrTi-:R. 

Foreword — From New York to the Border — Over the Alkah Plains — 
Native Food — Mexican Opals — The Nochistongo Canal — Arrival at Mexico 
City — Journey South of the Capital — Adventures at Achotal — On Horse- 
back Over Forest Trails — The Demarest and Newmark Estates — xArrival at 
"La Buena Ventura." 

MY journey to the Ticrra Caliciitc, or "hot country," in Mexico, 
was taken with the sole ohject of seeing for myself cultivated 
ruhher planted by both individuals and stock companies. I 
selected typical plantations as far as I could, most of them in the state 
of N'era Cruz, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The states of Tabasco 
and much of Oaxaca and Chiapas I was forced to leave out of my 










native hut in the state of vera CRUZ. 



itinerar}-, although they too have large and successful plantings, which I 
hope to visit later. I left New York quietly and alone, paid all my own 
expenses for the whole trip, and carefullv avoided exploiting either 
myself or those who had shares or land to market. This statement seems 
necessary, because, since mv return, I have been asked in all seriousness 
whether this or that company had me "under its wing." to use later for 
advertising purposes. I wish also to add a word of thanks for the 
courtesy, the generous hospitality, and the frank, helpful cordiality 
extended to me by the planters whom it was m\- good fortune to visit. 
May I add that, of the conclusions drawn from my visit — while they 

95 



96 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



prove to me that certain procedure in clearing, planting, care, etc., is 
vital in the localities under consideration — it does not follow that, given 
a different locality, soil, and climatic conditions, other methods might 
not prove necessary. 

In spite of an innate belief in my own pre])aredness for the Mexican 
pilgrimage, when ready to start I lost no time in consulting persons who 
had gone before as to material equipment for the journey. The advice 
received solved itself into the purchase of a broad-brimmed soft hat. 




C.\NE FIliEK RAINCOAT. 



neglige shirts, light flannel underwear, a "navv bag"" (a dress suit case 
on horseback, being a source of worry and a constant temptation to land- 
ing on one"s head), and a pair of long-legged moosehide "snake boots." 
To this was added later a Colt"s revolver and holster, to be worn in the 
unsettled country south of the City of Mexico ; a rubber poncho coat that 
looked like a long, tan colored nightshirt, a linen suit, and for medicines, 
a box of cascarets, a bottle of chloranodyne, and a ])int of two grain 



isr/iMi's oi' Tin I r. I XT HP EC 



97 



quinine pills. Had I ai^prcciated the ])erlin;icity cjf the Mexican flea, 
I should have added a hUnver and a jmund or two of Dalmatian powder. 
It was snowing;- when nur train left jersey Cit}', starting tor the 
southland. Nor did winter really forsake us until we were well into 
the Indian Territory. As a matter of fact, I do not think I fully realized 
that I was on my wa\' to the land of the Lastilloa, until 1 awoke one morn- 
ing- and saw the dwarf cactus that grew hy the side of the track, and 
further on, at San Antonio, Texas, began to note the picturesque Mexican 





1^ 


M 


ii 


■ 


■f 


g 


■ 



COCOA FIBER RAINCOAT. 



costumes and the subtle influence in architecture, climate, and soil, that 
proclaimed our nearness to a land of strange peoples, customs, and 
language. Finally we crossed the Rio Grande, drew up on Mexican 
soil, had our baggage examined by dark complexioned officials who were 
polite beyond belief, changed our money, getting two dollars and fifty- 
eight cents for each dollar of Uncle Sam's currency, and were at length 
in the land of the Aztecs. 



98 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 




E. F Fi?k.Enprav(T. X.V 



I ST II Mrs or I liiir.ix'i liPJic 



99 



The Ixinlcr town where we iiKuk' nnr entry is kiKiwii ;is (, ui<la(l 
Porfirio Diaz — the first w.ird ineanin.^- ■"cily."" Here ah was Si)anisli, or 
rather .Mexiean, the adohe licnises, the half clad liuhan children who 
l)e!;-i;ed softK, "//// ccittaro Sotor." and the placid, care-free appearance 
i)f the railroad men, who had the air of havinj;- hnt little on their minds, 
and no cause for hurr\- or wurrw were all in marked contrast to the 
hustling, hustling- atmos])here that is so much in e\idence on this side of 
the horder. After pulling out of Diaz, we retired, slept soundly, and 
waked to hreakfast in Torreon. three thousand seven hundred feet above 
the level of the sea. It was a real Mexican hreakfast. although cooked 
and served hv Chinese, and eaten in a leisurely way that did not at all 
suggest a waiting train. 




PRIMITIVE MEANS UK 



To digress a moment: When I say we. 1 refer to myself and 
wdiatever- chance acquaintance I might be thrown in with at the moment. 
As far as Torreon I had had three such — a sugar planter who left at 
St. Louis ; an arm\- officer, home from the Philippines, wdio got off at 
San Antonio, and a young English mining engineer, who was to estab- 
lish himself permanently at Zacatecas. The last named was a nice fellow, 
but verv serious withal, and responded with extreme reluctance to any 
attempted humor. For example, he had noted, as I said, the influx of 
Americans to the country, and said : 

"By the wav. those planters now. what do they raise?"' 
I replied, "The older ones, who are settled down, raise pineapples, 
cacao, and rubber: most of the younger ones raise Cain." 

Lore. 



lOO 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



"But don't any of the older ones go into the sugar business, too?" 
he inquired. 

The whole of the first day's ride on Mexican soil was through a 
lofty plateau, very bare and dry. the chief vegetation being the giant 
cactus. In spite of the closing of the car windows, the fine alkali dust 
sifted in. coating everything, and making it quite difficult to breathe. 
Towards evening we reached the mining city of Zacatecas. which is more 
than eight thousand feet above the sea level, wdiere we were told that 
we should have difiiculty in breathing, because of the rarefied atmos- 
phere. As a matter of fact, none of us sufl:"ered the slightest incon- 
venience. We did suffer a disappointment in not being able to see the 
city, which lies hundreds of feet below the railway, but night had fallen. 




MAQUEY PLANT.ATION NEAR MEXICO CITY. 



and we could only guess its location from the twinkling lights far below 
us. The next morning we passed through Queretara, where M'aximilian 
was executed, and breakfasted at Tula, a station some miles further on. 
Here we were introduced afresh to the staple articles of Mexican food, 
the tortilla and the frijolc. The former is a flat cake of unleavened bread 
made of corn flour, that tears like blotting paper and is about as palatable. 
It is made by the native women, who treat the corn first with a solution 
of lye to destrov the outer skin, and then they crush it on a little three- 
legged stone table, called a mutate, h\ means ( f a stone niaiio or rolling 
pin. This, mixed with water, is l)aked, and is apparenth- much ])rized 
by the natives. The frijolcs or Mexican l)eans are of two kinds, iicgros 
and blanca — that is, black and white. To my palate the black ones are 



isr/iMCs or T/inr.i\Ti:[>/ic 



lOI 



altoi^ctluT tlic l)rsl. aUli()U,i;h I cnjuyed Ixiili. The Akwicans are also 
ver\- fond of meats wliicli are conked almost as soon as killed, and there- 
fore, apt to he tonsil. In their cooking- the\- nse a i;reat deal of lard 
and make a ,L;rcasy coin]>ound that a i^i'iiigo stomach hnds hard to dii^est. 
I think it was at Tula that we ji^ot a first sis^ht of Mexican opals. 
It is well known that almost everN' visitor to the land of the Aztecs has 
a vision of the pnrchase of ojxds at an exceed in^K- low price, and the 
best of stones at that. It was here that we all had onr chance. Several 
dark lined vendors showed ])ackages of stones that were beauties. The 
askinji- price was high, however, and was lowered only when the train 
l)egan to move. We all knew what this meant. .\ hurried assent, the 
transfer of the coin and the package of o])als, and the snl)se(|uent dis- 




SXOW CAPPED (IKI/.AP.A 



covery that another package of less valuable stones had been deftly sub- 
stituted. So we all refused to purchase. Did I say all? One shrewd 
Yankee watched his chance, made his purchase, and came back chuckling. 

"I fixed that moco," he said; "I gave him four big Mexican cents 
instead of as many quarters." When he opened his packet, however, 
his face fell, for it contained only common pebbles. 

A few miles south of this we had a line view of the great Xochis- 
tongo Canal, which in some parts is six hundred feet wide and two hun- 
dred feet deep. It was begun back in 1608, as a drainage canal for the 
vallev of Mexico. The railroad runs for miles by the side of it, and 
when one appreciates the fact that every bit of the earth was taken out in 



I02 RUBBER PLANTIXG ON THE 

baskets on the backs of peons, the magnitude of the work is appalling. 
The canal was never completed, as there was an error in the levels, 
amounting to al^out forty feet, over which the water refused to run. 

Soon after this the eternal snows of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl 
sprang into sight, and although few of the passengers pronounced either 
of the words correctly, all seemed to be sufficiently impressed. We 
learned here that the former of the two mountains had been purchased 
by the Standard Oil Co., who are to work the vast sulphur deposits in 
the crater above the snows. The second volcano was exploited to us by 
a polite Mexican who said that the Aztec name meant "the lady of the 
snows,"" and he pointed out that the irregular ])eaks of this mountain, 
with their snowv mantle, took on the figure of a woman l}iug on hei' 
back with her arms folded. All the rest of the party said that the like- 
ness was perfect, and to save trouble I agreed with them, but it really 
looked more like a couple of huge circus tents fresh from the laundry. 




MOUNTAIN CLIMBING ENGINE 



Shortly after this, we reached the City of ]\Iexico, took a carriage, 
drove to a hotel built in a holknv square, with tiled floors, stuccoed walls, 
and rooms without baths. Here we unpacked our traps, sent out and 
bought soap, and spent two hours in making alkaline solution from the 
various strata of dust that had settled upon our editorial i)ers;)n. 

It was middav, and hot — uncomfortably so in the sun; and just 
here I want to speak of the climate of the city, and then dismiss the 
matter forever. It mav l)e all that is claimed for it l)y guideliooks and 
railwav folders, at certain seasons, luit it struck me as far from perfect. 
At night it was so cool that a heavy suit and a light overcoat were neces- 
sary, while in the middle of the day one yearned for pajamas and sandals. 
When one gets really chilly, there seem to l)e but two ])laces to get warm ; 
one is the I'nited States and the other the Isthnuis of Tehuantei^ec. 



/.S77/.l/r.V (;/•" T/i/I(\l.\ri:l'I:C 103 

There doesn't exist a firepl.-ice, a stow, or anv sort of heating apparatus, 
in hotel or ])rivate house. Indeed, tlie inhahitants of the eity claim that 
such are unlicalthx, and the result is that every stranger courts ]jneu- 
monia, unless exceedingly careful. The city itself is heautiful, and has a 
chocolate-colored ]ioliceinan at every corner; a ])o!ite little chap who 
appreciates a ti]) or a good cigar, and who will do anything in reason for 
the well heliaxed. 

1 spent two da\s in the capital, and was very much impressed with 
its beauties. I'or a description of the buildings, customs, and places of 
interest, one need onl\ turn to the many excellent guidebooks on sale 
everywhere. There are two points, however, which these publications do 
not touch upon. One is the very sincere and deserved admiration which 




LOOKING DOWN UPON MALTRATA FROM THE TRAIN 

visitors of every nation openly express for President Diaz, and another 
is the fact that American moneymakers, in a great variety of lines, are 
getting a very strong foothold in the city, to its marked benefit and to 
theirs. 

Like any other tenderfoot, I had brought with me a lot of luggage, 
which a closer view of conditions in the Terra Caliciifc showed to be 
unnecessary. Most of this I left in the City of Mexico, and started forth 
early one morning, clad in a summer suit, flannel shirt, and broad-brimmed 
hat, with a Colt thirty-eight strapped to my waist, and bearing for lug- 
gage, a small Ijag and a Mexican blanket. I fountl the conditions on 
trains south of Mexico Citv radically diiiferent from those to the north. 



I04 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



There were, for example, first, second, and third class cars, with no Pull- 
mans. The first class car might have been a baggage car for all the 
luggage that the passengers had, and it might have been a smoking car 
for the way in which both sexes smoked cigarettes ; indeed, it might 
have been a barroom for the way that the train boy served native cognac 
and beer. Aly seatmate, a powerful Swede, appreciated some of these 
Providences more than I did. As he was interested in rubber planting, 
and particularly as he understood Spanish, we became quite friendlv, and 
before I knew it he was taking my trip right out of mv hands. He ver- 
bally hustled me through Mexico, and by this time would have had me 
in Patagonia, had I not put on the brakes. 

The first part of my journey from the city, the road ran through 
enormous maguey plantations, from which Mexico's national drink, the 





Pi 

M 


1 



STREET SCENE IN CORDOBA 



pulque, is drawn. Then, after miles of dusty plain, the road (near Esper- 
anza) runs close to the mountain side, disclosing, some four thousand 
feet below, the little native village of Maltrata. Zigzagging round the 
mountain, tunneling through projecting rocks, clinging to the edge of 
awful precipices, the train curves and slides, until it finally gets down to 
the plain, and the powerful double-headed locomotive which held it back 
stops with a veritable sigh of relief. 

Leaving Maltrata, the course still contiues down hill, following the 
windings of a mountain stream some hundreds of feet below, until we 
finally sight Orizaba, clothed in eternal snow, lifting its head high above 
all surrounding peaks, and to mv mind far more beautiful and impressive 
than Popocatepetl or its sister summit, over which tourists rave. After 



/STI/MCS Ol' 1 IUIi\l\llil>liC 



\o- 



a brief sto]) at tlic niuuntain iK'd.^ed city of (Jrizaha, \vc left the train 
at Cordoha. where the Spanish of niy traveling comijanion was most help- 
ful in securing accommodations at a little Mexican hotel, where we had a 
reall\ good dinner and comfortable beds. 

In the morning we took an early train over the \'era Cruz and Pacific 
road for Achotal, its terminus. Although the run is not a lon<>- one, 
it takes from six o'clock in the morning till one the following mornino- 
to make it. 




( FICUS BENJAMIN,\. 

That we were getting into an unsettled country was luuch more 
apparent than ever before, the cars being guarded b\ 'ntralcs ( the native 
military police ) . and the passengers, both Americans and Mexicans, having 
the free and easy demeanor which characterized the early davs of the Far 
West. The conductors and train hands were Americans, as were many 
of the passengers, all of whom were going south and most of them 
interested in rubber planting projects. As was natural, the Americans 



io6 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



and English gravitated together, and I heard many interesting facts 
concerning the countr\- and much concerning rubber planting. 
The verdict of those who were not directly interested in the 
business seemed to be that there was nothing in it. and 
that rubber trees could never be grown. Indeed, one passenger said 
flatlv that he had been in the country a number of years, but he had 
never seen a rubber tree, and didn't believe they could be grown anyhow. 
This did not seem to disturb the serenity of the planters who didn't 
argue the matter at all. but let the others talk. We passed a rather 



■;.c^. ***. , 



-^ 






»; 



Z.-K-; 
^ Xj 



■m 












LA| JUNTA CORNER OF RUBBER FIELD ONE YEAR OLD. 

wearisome day on the train, stopping occasionally for meals and gettmg 
them served more and more in pioneer fashion. I had intended to stop 
off at Tierra IJlanca. in the vicinity of which are large plantations, 
but learning that the men whom I most wished to see were al)sent. I left 
that for a Tater visit. I'inally. at one o'clock in the morning, we reached 
Achotal, the train returning at once and leaving us standing on the plat- 
form of the only frame building in the i^lace. the depot, which was 
promptly locked. 



fSTllMrS or TlilllWXTIiPliC 



107 



1 am moved to tell of my e.\])ericiice at Achotal, not to deter the 
timid or comfort loving- from venturing- into this ]jart of the country, 
but as a bit of history, for within a very few uKjnths it will cease to be 
a pioneer railroad terminal, with its tramps, its native workmen, and its 
flourishing- cantina, and it will settle <lown as a safe, prosaic, Mexican 
way station, in fact, this chaui^e was almost due when 1 was there, for 
track had been hastily laid and construction trains run down to Santa 
Lucretia. where it is to join with the National Tehuantepec Railway. 
This construction train, by the way. we were to take some time about six 
o'clock in the mornin^s^, and after riding- about fifteen kilometers. I plannefl 
to stop at Santa Rosa, and thus reach a lart;e private rubber plantation 
operated l)v an oldtime friend of mine. 




LA FLOREXCIA. — PLANTATION HOUSE. 



To l)e left in a town like Achotal at one o'clock in the morning", with 
the kiK^wledge that it would l)e hard wr,rk to get a bed. is not a partic- 
ularlv cheerful prospect. One of mv planter friends, Mr. W. L. Adams 
of Ixtal, however, whom I shall always remember gratefully, piloted 
me across the muddv track, walked me over a narrow, springy plank 
w'hich rested against a steep bank, and I saw fronting- me the few palm 
thatched native huts which make up the town. Entering one of these, 
we found that there was no room at all, every available space being taken 
b\' canvas cots and conscientious snorers. Leading me further up the 
hill, however, he forced his way into another hut, roused the owner, and 
finallv secured for me a cot. This I took possession of. and prepared to 



io8 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

make myself comfortaljle. as had a half dozen Mexicans, each of whom 
had a similar resting place. 

All were not asleep, however ; in fact, mv nearest neighbor, a mus- 
cular young iiioco, was just disrobing. While he undressed, his hat, 
which lav on the cot, showed that it was preempted. Everything was 
peaceful ; the snores of the sleepers, the stamping of the horses outside, 
the grunting of the pigs that had come in the open doorway and were 
seeking what they could devour, and the scratching of the flea tormented 









N- / J'M 






LA FLORENCIA. — TAPPING LARGE WILD RUBHEK TREE. 



dogs, being the only sounds of life. Breaking in upon all this peace 
came the big Swede, with a very substantial ''jag," and took possession 
of the iiiorjo's cot, throwing his hat upon the floor, whereupon the native 
drew his knife, preparatory to a pointed argument. Not that I cared 
particularly for the ;ho^o, or for the Swede, but in the interests of fair 
play I interfered, telling the latter that if he insisted upon taking the 
cot, the inorjo should have mine, whereupon he went out with some 
grumbling, and wra])ping myself in my blanket I went to sleep, feeling 



no RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

that I had done a good turn for a dark-skinned, downtrodden brother. 
I was not to rest long, however, for I was awakened h\ the reentrance 
of the Swede, who came to inquire pohtely if the strangeness of my 
surroundings kept me from sleeping. I assured him they did not, and 
he departed satisfied, and I dropped off to sleep again. Suddenly, how- 
ever, 1 was awakened by the feeling that some one was looking me in 
the face, and opening my eyes I saw the inozo with his face about three 
inches from mine and his hand outstretched toward my breast pocket. 
1 have forgotten just what I said to him, but it was most emphatic, and 
he went back and la}- down, while I, wrapping my blanket tightly about 
me, dropped into another doze, but not for long. Back came the Swede, 
with more of a "jag" than ever, and sat on the side of my cot. and wished 
aloud that he had a place to lie down, so I got up, and gave him my cot, 
and went and sat in the doorway, and smoked and thought. 

At five o'clock I succeeded in getting some coffee, which greatlv 
refreshed me, and at nine o'clock I boarded the construction train, which 
was made up of a wood burning engine, a boxcar for passengers, and 
two flat cars loaded with railroad ties, inozos, and negroes. We crept 
along at a snail's pace over the temporary track which was not ballasted 
and which had sunk almost out of sight, sometimes, in the clayey mud, 
and sometimes it slid a foot or two to right or left, threatening to over- 
turn the car. That this latter was no idle dream was indicated by several 
boxcars which we saw that had been tipped oft' into ditches along the 
side. We finallv reached Santa Rosa and disembarked — that is, I did, 
and mv cheerful planter friend, Adams, while all the rest went on. Santa 
Rosa station is not a large one, the only building there being a ruined hut 
of native build that had been in use when the pioneer railway camp 
was there. 

On the opposite side of the track, however, the land had been 
cleared and planted to Castilloa, a part of the Demarest estate, my first 
sight of the cultivated trees. They were growing on a well drained 
hillside, in a rich, loamy soil, with a substratum of clay, and although 
shedding their leaves, as they always do at the beginning of the dry 
season, thev looked thrifty and healthy. ]\Iy companion sent one of his 
men oft' through the forest to secure horses, and while he did that 1 
drank in the beauties of that tropical scene. It was a glorious morning, 
and everything possessed the charm of novelty. The huge forest trees, 
studded with orchids and epiphytes, the marvelously dense growth where 
no clearing had been made — a growth of trees, vines, and climbers so 
thick that it would have been impossible to go ten feet through it with- 



ISrilMCS ()!■ TIUn'AXTEPEC 



1 1 



out ciUtiiij;- one's \va\ : llic parrots clialtcriiiL;' in the- trci,'s, the l)rilliant 
maeaws tl\in!L; t«i and fro, and the weahh of llnwrrs. hii^- and little, held 
nie s])elll;i)nnd. I was awakened tnmi ni\ re\ery hy .Mr. Adams, who 
led me U]) o\er the hill where li\ed tlu- owner of the rul)her trees, who 
welcomed ns warmlw and |)re])ared an ahundant meal, chattini^- most 
entertainingly ahout the countr}- and its prospects. 

After a siesta, the horses having; come, we mounted and trotted 












A. MP X(>. 4. UN I'l.A.X TATIOX KUDIO. 



gaily away: that is. Mr. Adams did, hut as I had not heen on horsehack 
since I was ten years old, I felt anything l)ut frivolous. A Mexican 
saddle, liowever, kept me within hounds, and verv soon the trail entered 
the virgin forest and got so rough and muddv that the trot calmed down 
to a walk, much to mv satisfaction. 

I don't think I shall ever forg-et one particular place in that road, 



112 



RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



where we had to cross a niiuKly ravine with steep, claye_\' Ijanks on either 
side, or how I sat back as far as possible while the horse slid down to 
the Ijottom, and then suddenly reversed my position and got one hand 
tight in his mane while he scrambled up the other: nor will I forget 
how he tried to get out of the mud in the middle of the trail by walking 
close to the trees, and of my frantic efforts to keep him away from the 
spiney palms and numerous other bristling projections of the forest. 
We finally emerged into the oi^en, however, and as we came out my com- 
panion asked me how 1 liked it. 1 had by that time gotten into the spirit 
-of the thing, and was thoroughly enjoying it, so that I could conscien- 
tiously sav. "First rate." 

"Well, that's the worst trail around here,'' he replied: "I thought 
you might as well have that at the beginning." 




WATER FKONT AT MAXITITLAN. 

Copyrighted Photo by C. B. Waite, Mexico. 



The rest of the ride was through a magnificent stand of cultivated 
Castilloa trees, planted on rolling ground, about nine feet apart, showing 
every evidence of intelligent care. Half an hour later, we drew up at 
Newmark's plantation, which is known as El Ritero, and is a private 
venture, embracing some four hundred acres of land, on wdiich are about 
fifty thousand rubber trees, planted four or five feet apart in the rows. 
They looked finely, and indeed the whole place, with its coffee, bananas, 
etc., appeared to be most fiourishing. Here I was treated to a small red 
banana about the size of one's thumb, that was the most delicious bit of 
fruit one can imagine. 1 now parted from Mr. .\dams. and being taken 



114 RUBBER PLANTING OX THE 

in charge by Mr. Newmark, soon reached La Buena A'entura, and 
entered the house that was to be my headquarters during my stay in the 
Trinidad River district. 

I had not seen my friend Harvey, the founder of this tropical 
enterprise, since we dined together at the Lotos Chilj in New York 
four years liefore. He was then yearning to shake the snows of the 
north from his feet and • hasten Ijack to the land where winter was 
unknown. I doubt if he beheved that I would ever redeem mv ])romise 
given then to visit him, and it was not for some time that I learned 
the cause for this skepticism. It seems that man\- northerners come to 
the City of Mexico — some venture to Orizaba and ]Joints easy of access 
further south, Init few get as far as Achotal. ( )nlv a short time pre- 
viously a well known New York lawyer arrived there at one in the 
morning, saw what he was "up against," boarded the train, and started 
back, though within ten miles of his destination. And that was why 
mv host exclaimed, "Bv Jove, vou are reallv here !" 



isriiMi's oi' 'iiuir.w'Trj'iic 



SEcuxi) lkt'I"i-:r. 

A Prosperous Pkinatk Plantation — Huxtixg i-ok Ijarkkx RuuiiEK Trees — 
Planting in P'avokaule and Unfavorable Locations — Conditions for Successful 
Plantinc; — The Dry and Rainy Seasons — Visits to Neighboring Plantations — 
IxTAL — Snakes — La Junta — The Agricultural Mozo— Xeciko Laborers — A 
MinNiGiiT Ride — Freedom from Plant Pests. 

THE site of the plantation. La Ihiena X'entura, five years ago 
was virgin forest. At that time Mr. James l". Harvey and his 
son, Clarence, ])urchase(l for themselves and their associates, (a 
private corporation), one thousand acres of land and prepared to develop 
it along the most practical lines. When the senior Air. Harvey 
came to Alexico, it was with the idea of planting cotTee, hut after months 
of study and a personal inspection of most of the Isthmus country, he 
decided that India-ruhher offered the hest opportunity for profit, and 
therefore he has turned the larger part of his land into a plantation of 
Castilloa elastica. 1 am enlarging upon this trifle because, to my cer- 
tain knowledge, the gentleman under consideration is not only an expert 
horticulturist and botanist, but has studied tropical agriculture in Cen- 
tral and South America, and in the East Indies and West Indies, and 
beyond this he and his associates oft'ered no stock for sale, but went into 
the business to make mone\- out of their own investment of capital, 
energv, and knowledge. Such a plantation must, without fail, give the 
visitor the best possible view of the practical end of the business. There 
are, of course, manv such private estates in the tropics, but it happened 
that this was the one that I knew most of. and to visit which I had a most 
cordial invitation. 

Here I was. therefore, installed in the palm thatched house, with 
its earthern floor and liamboo walls, that for five years had been the 
home of these hardv pioneers. The domicile was situated at one end 
of a long ridge, on each side of which, with a rare eye to eft'ect. were 
planted gorgeous flowering and foliage plants, and trees valuable for 
fruit and for ornament. \^ery modestly the presiding genius showed 
me sixty-five dift'erent species of palms, probably the largest collection 
in the Americas. Not only were there palms native to the tropical parts 
of America, but there were specimens from Java. Ceylon. New Guinea, 
Queensland, the Eiji Islands. New South Wales, and a score of other 
remote places. These were gathered, not as part of the planting proposi- 



ii6 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

tion, but fruni a ])lant lover's interest alone, which thev seemed to 
appreciate by growing- luxuriantly. 

Then, too, I must not forget the collection of orchids that hung 
from the bamboo lattice outside of the house, and clung to the trees 
on all sides ; nor the orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, banana, and plan- 
tain trees, a notable part of the garden equipment. I looked with 
interest also on the vanilla vines, the cacao plantation, and the twenty- 
five varieties of pineapples, but my chief thought was rubber, and so 
I soon found, was his. I do not wish to make mv planter friend blush, 
but when I found the work he was doing, how widelv he was consulted 
b}- planters both in Mexico and in distant tropical lands, I was more 
than ever im]:)ressed with my wonderful luck in thus "striking oil" when 
first I began to bore. So I asked questions, and questions, and questions, 
and took notes most copiouslv all the time. 

One of the first points that I wanted settled was, whether here or 
elsewhere, there were Castilloa trees, either wild or cultivated, that did 
not yield latex. So we both started out to find one such tree, by cutting 
the outer bark — indeed, during all of the trip, I cut trees h\ the hundred 
just to prove this point — but found none except in one instance. T was 
much interested also to note the differences in the lafc.v as it issued forth. 
In some instances the tree would send out a perfect shower of milk- 
white drops, which coagulated rather slowly, while another near l)y 
would exude a thicker fluid that began to coagulate almost immediatelv. 
The natives claim that this latter tree is simply so rich in rubber that 
it retards the flow, and that after a little tapping, it corrects itself and 
the lafc.v becomes more fluid. 

The younger trees gave out abundant lafc.v, Imt those that were 
less than four years old gave a milk that seemed immature ; that is, it 
did not coagulate into dry, hard rubber but remained cpiite sticky. I 
noted also a curious thing in connection with this, which was that in 
the younger trees the lafc.v l)egan to mature first near the base of the 
tree, while up towards the branches it still remained of the sticky sort. 
I'.ut we found no trees in this district that did nc^t \ield lafc.v abundantly. 

At La Buena Ventura I was able to institute some exceedingly 
interesting comparisons between the growth of th? rubber tree under 
favorable and unfavorable conditions. In both cases the trees were 
Castilloas, planted from selected seed. Tn the first instance the\- were 
planted in the ojjen, about nine feet ai)art. on roUinv; land which had 
good drainage. Measuring the circumference of the trunks a foot above 
the ground, I got a fair average of 23.3 inches, ;uid an e^tiniat -d average 



ii8 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

height of twenty-two feet. The Ijanner Castilloa was a seedUng planted 
in the open, that measured thirty-two inches in circumference 
and twenty-five feet high. All of these trees had every 
appearance of health and vigor, and gave forth milk abundantly. From 
the records shown me. they were a trifle over four years old. In 
the second instance, grown in partial shade, such as produced fine 
cacao, with the land more level and not well drained, the trees being 
planted at exactly the same time, and from the same lot of seed, I got 
an average of 4.6 inches for circumference a foot above the ground, and 
an average height of six feet. Anyone would not seem to need a more 
graphic illustration than this of the necessity for observing proper con- 
ditions in planting, and further, as a warning against planting in badly 
drained land or in the shade. 

It is well to note that where these failures appeared there were 
several wild rubber trees that we estimated to be twenty-five or thirty 
years old. They seemed to be perfectly healthy and bled freely. The 
onlv reasonable explanation of this is that they were seedlings that grew 
up slowly in the densest sort of forest when the tremendous surface 
growth was so luxuriant as to lie able to partially drain the ground 
through its great leaf areas, and also lift and make it porous b}- the 
leverage of myriads of thrusting roots. The partial clearing of the land 
later stopped most of this aerial drainage, and the subsequent rotting of 
the roots allowed the ground to sink into a solid, water-sodden mass. 

The land at La Buena \'entura seemed to be first leaf mold, then 
a rich, yellow loam, three or more feet deep, and under that a blue, 
clayey ooze, as if from the bottom of a tropical ocean bed. It was rolling 
land, as a rule, very well drained, and capable of growing almost 
anv tro])ical product. The C'lsfilloa orchard, through which I tramjied 
manv times, had in it about two hundred and forty thousand trees, 
from one to four years of age. All of them were planted from the 
seed, except a small percentage taken from nursery stock to make u]; 
for the occasional failure of a seedling. 

One result of mv early observation, and one that grew with each 
(la^■"s experience, was the conviction that a knowledge of climate, rain- 
falls, soils, drainage, etc., is an absolute necessity from the beginning, 
in the selection of suitable sites for rubber plantations. In other words, 
the ex])ert tropical agriculturist, well equipped with common sense, is 
most likeh- to be the one who starts right. For example, one plans to 
plant the Castilloa. It is a soft, wood tree, a tree that from its physical 
formation is not built to stand high winds, that with its long taproot 



ISTI/Mrs ()/■ 1 hJir.lSTEPlLC 



119 



must have a (k'cp, rich soil, and well drained withal. It is a deciduous 
tree, which means that at a certain time each \ear it encourages the 
presence of the sun's rays on its trunk and limhs. The prospective 
planter should, therefore, ])ick out land that is covered with a growth 
of soft, rather than hard wood trees, as the latter points to a gravelly 
soil instead of clayey loam. It should he rolling land, or at least land 
that is naturally well drained. It should be soil that will give the tree 
plenty of moisttu'e during the dry season and yet that will not be soggy 
dm'ing the wet season. For a running rule, there should be at least 
four feet of drainage soil. In the clearing of the land, if there are not 
natural windbreaks, a certain amount of forest should be left standing 
to act as such. Referring again to the long taproot of the Castilloa, 




HDTEL PALOM.VRES, M,\N1TITLAX. 

[Copyrighted Photo by C. B. Waite, Mexico.] 



it is said that as the tree grows older it often disappears, its place being 
taken by large laterals. 

I struck the Ticrra Caiiciifc just at the beginning of the dry season, 
and therefore was curious to know exactly what constitutes the rainy 
and dry seasons in the tropics. Of course, no general answer could 
be given, as in dift'erent tropical regions these seasons have their own 
idiosyncrasies. I believe I had luit little idea of what the weather was 
in the rainv season, whether it rained all the time, or was partlv rainy 
and partlv clear, and this is what I learned : In the state of \'era Cruz, 
the drv season runs roughlv from Februarv to June. During the latter 
part of ]\Ia\- there are about three weeks of genuine hot, drv weather. 



I20 RUBBER PLAXTIXG ON THE 

I'rior to this, what is reahy the dry season is often broken by rainfall ; 
in fact, it rains a little about half the time. Beginning with the first 
of June, however, and lasting until the first of September, come the 
torrential rains, except that there is, in August, a week or ten days 
of dry weather. Xine days out of ten during the torrential rains, the 
morning breaks l)right. clear and sunshiny. Then in the early afternoon 
heavy thunder is heard, followed by the roar of the rain through the 
forest, the water falling in sheets from one-half to one and .one-half 
hours. It also rains regularly during the night. 

When night fell at La Buena \'entura, we all went indoors, for 
beautiful though the tropical moonlight is, fevers are most easily caught 
after sundown, and particularly if one sleeps out in the open. In fact, 
native or planter will do almost anything rather than thus expose him- 
self. We did sit in the doorway, for awhile, and drink in the glorious 
view of tropical luxuriance, made almost as light as day by the full 
moon, yet softened to a weird, rich beauty that the northern climes 
cannot ecjual. 

For the first time in my life 1 slept under a gracefully draped series 
of nmslin curtains. As there were no mosquitoes, 1 thought it rather 
unnecessary until m)- host said that although the country was a para- 
dise, centipedes, small snakes, and tarantulas sometimes dropped from 
the inside of the thatched roof, and while the\- were not as poisonous 
as man}- thought, I might not care to share my couch with them. I slept 
under a blanket, it was so cool, and awoke to find awaiting me, at the end 
of a palm thatched corridor, a fine shower bath. Few planters have 
them, but Mr. Flarvey's English blood, so it is said, impelled him to 
build this before he had a roof on his house. It was certainly a great 
luxury, and one to which my thought often turned when later I awoke 
from a night's alleged sleep in a passenger coach or native hut. 

The day was Sunday, and we had cofifee and rolls soon after rising, 
and breakfast about twelve, as is the custom of the country. In the 
afternoon many neighboring ])lanters rode over on horses or nuiles. dis- 
cussed crojDs, and asked the news from the outer world. The\- were 
most cordial in their invitations to me to visit their places, and it was 
with the greatest regret that I was able to avail myself of only a few 
of these privileges. 

It was during this social Sabbath that I renewed a pleasant acquaint- 
ance with the two Fish brothers, Wisconsin Yankees, who were looking 
at land in that region, and who, I believe, finally purchased La 
l<"l()rencia estTte, said to have the oldest cultivated rubber in that 



/.V77/.1/C.V or '//■:ii[-.L\rii!'/:C 



121 



district. TIk'n were hustling alxuit, src-iii^ tliinj4> in a julK. Ijreczy 
fasliion that mailc thnn must wcK-oiiic, and tliex- 1k'1])C(1 ine exceed- 
ingly by giving nie excellent pliotograplis (jf nearby estates that I did 
not have an c^pportunitx- to visit. 

When tirst I strnck La lUiena \ entnra I must confess that the 
languor of the climate, or (.'Ise m\- own innate laziness, led me ttj take 
things very eas\ . The hammock in the famih- room was most inviting, 
and in s])ite of the fact that " Loro,"" the green ])arrot. watched until I 
nap])ed. and then climbed down from the rafters and gave me a friendK- 
bite, I luxuriated — but onI\ for a couple of days, and the\- were far 
Irom wasted, as I drank in lots of information from m\ h )st. 




RUCIO. — INTERIOR OF TEMPORARY OFFICE. 



The second day we started out to visit the neighbors. I wanted 
to walk but that was out of the question, so I had mv second exj)erienL^e 
as a horseman. I was devoutly thankful that mv little mare was lazv — 
nor did I mind it that she always managed to step on mv toes just as I 
prepared to mount. Ikit she did take advantage of me when she chose 
to stop on a log bridge not more than two feet wide and standing on three 
legs tried to bite a fly that she pretended was on the fourth. I did 
not fall oil. but had I started her with voice or whin 1 think I should 
have. She had a habit, too. of imagining she saw a snake ahead in 



122 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

the trail, and suddenK- leaping to one side. I staved with her every 
time, and am still just as much surprised at it as she was. 

Our first visit was to Ixtal, where I again had a chance to thank 
Mr. Adams for his earlier helpfulness, and also to meet his right hand 
man, Mr. Stewart. It was to ni}- mind the hottest day we had experi- 
enced, when we finallv reached the ridge upon which the plantation 
huildings were located. By that time I was getting to be somewhat 
of a connoisseur in rubber trees, and so, after the noon breakfast, was 
glad to accompany Mr. Adams on a tour of inspection. Here were 
some two hundred and fifty acres planted to rubber, the oldest trees 
being four years, and the total number about one hundred and fifty 
thousand. 

The land was very similar to that at La Buena Ventura, and the 
growth about the same, although in a part of the plantation the trees 
seemed to be a little taller. Latex flowed from them all abundantly, and 
my guide said that he had never found one that did not show plenty of 
milk. In discussing this question, Mr. Adams told of an Australian 
scientist who had been in that region, and wdio claimed that there were 
three native Castilloa species, only one of which was a rubber producer. 
They all looked alike, so he said, and the difference in them could only be 
detected by a careful examination of the cellular structure of the leaf. 
He said further that he uprooted eightv per cent, of his own first year's 
planting, because he did not know this. When he finally did get the 
right tree big enough to tap, it bled so freely that he was obliged to 
stop the cuts with clav, else it would have bled to death. We were able 
to assure Air. Adams that this was not credible, to which he agreed. 

One of the officials of Ixtal, Dr. Butcher, has a very pretty home 
not far from the plantation headquarters, at which we called on our 
way back. The Doctor and his wife received us hospitably, and while 
the others chatted on neighborhood topics, the head of the house took 
me out and showed me the skin of a big snake that he had just killed. 
Now one of the common dreads that tlie tenderfoot carries with him 
in the tropics is that of snakes. It would be folly to Vjclieve that 
there is no danger from them, when one considers the impenetrable 
jungles and the conditions that nature has prepared for an ideal reptilean 
existence. As a matter of fact, however, during the whole of mv trip 
I did not see a single live snake, big or little. I did see the skins of 
some verv sizeable ones nailed to walls of the planters* houses, such as 
that which Dr. Butcher showed me, but even those are rare. The 
planters sav that this is due to the fact that the woods are full of wild 



124 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

hogs that consider any kind of snake, poisonous or otherwise, a great 
dehcacy, and that those that escape the hogs are very likel\- to he caught 
bv the hawks, which are very al)undant and always on the watch. There 
are onlv two reahv poisonous snakes there, as far as known ; one is the 
rahadc hcitso, which is small, quick, and very deadly, and seems to have 
a special antipathy to mules : the second is called by the natives the 
"sorda,"' and is something like the diamond rattlesnake, but has no 
rattles. It has poison fangs an inch and a half long, is very slow to 
move, and quite poisonous. There are also small pythons and some 
big black racers, both harmless, however. 

We returned to La Huena \'entura late in the afternoon, and 
after a good nighfs sleep, were fully prepared for further visiting. Our 
next journev was to La Junta, the largest plantation in that district. 
Like all the others, the approach was through the forest, by the usual 
trail that meant considerable rough riding, the fording of streams, plod- 
ding through mud, and climbing over fallen tree trunks. l')y this time 
I was fairlv used to it, however, and was enjoying it as I never would 
bave believed possible. It was early in the afternoon when we emerged 
from the forest and struck the broad, fine road that runs through the 
plantation. We were now on a ridge that gave a fine view, not only 
of the rolling land covered with young rubber trees, but some two miles 
off we also saw the administration building and workmen's homes that 
mark the center of the planting operations. The estate contains some 
five thousand acres, of which about one-half is already cleared, most 
of it planted to rubber. The trees are from seven to nine feet apart, 
and looked as if the\- were in prime condition. The orchard numbers 
about seven hundred and fifty thousand rubber trees. The oldest were 
two vears and average 23.5 inches in diameter, a foot from the ground, 
and about seven feet in height. For help, there are from two 
hundred to four hundred men. one-half of whom are natives. Perhaps 
here more than anvwhere else has lieen tried the experiment of importing 
labor, and not depending en.tirely upon the native, who is not at all 
times entirely reliable. 

The average niozo. or agricultural ^al)orer. is, however, a most 
interesting studv. If treated well, he is a good workman, r-nd that, too, 
without anv ])articular reason why he should be. In tlie eomnuinity in 
which he lives, he has allotted to him a certain amount of land, which 
if tilled three months in the \ear very moderately, will i)ro(luce enough 
to keep its owner in what is to him comfort, the year round. As a rule, 
the uuKza is of medium height, strong and skille<l within certain narrow 



isriiMCs oi' riuir.ixriii'iic 



12 = 



liinil.-. l)Ul iL;ni)raiil, sui)crslilinus, and childlike. l'"or instance, he can 
carry on his back ahiiost as much as an al)le liothed l)urri), hut if he were 
to reach with both hands up the l)ranch of a tree over his head, he would 
find it impossible to pull his chin up even with it. On the other hand, 
he can use his iiuiclwtc, his constant companion, in the most skillful 
manner, and tirelesslw For exam])le, he knows so thoroughly the text- 
ure and density of all tropical vegetation, that he can cut his way 
through the forest with scarcely a sound, grading each blow so as to 
exactly sever vine, stalk, or limb, without waste of strength; or, if 



'w-'r 



*r:*- ^- 



'\jj^ '•-»*^*^ "'V.. 




KUBIO. — YOUNG PLANTED RUBBER. 



given a stint of work in clearing weeds or undergrowth with the 
machete, can do more in half a day than any other laborer can in a 
day. The axe men among them are not as common as the maehete men, 
but thev, too, are exceedingly skillful, wielding the straight handled, 
broad bladed axe with marvelous ease, and felling a tree, no matter how 
large it is, exactly where they wish. 

As a rule, the natives are not well nourished, and seem to have 
more sickness than do the foreign residents. Indeed, the stories of 
yellow fever that come to us relate more to the native workman than to 



126 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

any other people. Strange as it may seem also, the workmen from the 
hill country, when they get down in the hot countries, are very apt to 
die of pneumonia. The inozo withal is an impractical sort of a chap, and 
while he knows it. he doesn't seem to care to change. I heard a planter 
point out to one of them that if he stayed on his own allotment, and 
worked, he would in three months raise fifteen dollars worth of corn ; 
on the other hand, if he worked three months for the planter, he would 
get sixty dollars and all the corn he wanted. The native acknowledged 
the force of the argument, but didn't see his way clear to change his 
habits. They are a very serious people, as a rule, except when full of 
aguardiente; then they become rather boastful, and are sometimes quar- 
relsome. 

A pretty custom of the country is the greeting that they always 
give the traveler, and usually each other when thev meet. In the morn- 
ing, it is "biienas dias" ; in the afternoon, "buenos tarde" ; and in the 
evening, "biienos iwches." 

The iiw::o is essentially a religious being, and his impulses find ample 
scope in the thirty-five fiestas, or feast days, that have been provided for 
him. He usually patronizes at least two of these, and oftentimes many 
more, and spends every cent he has on aguardiente and nieseal. The 
result is that he gets conspicuously drunk and stays so as loug as he 
can. Such a thing as a nioco having money ahead is unknown. On the 
contrary, he is usually in debt. The planters, therefore, when thev hire 
them, purchase this debt, which sometimes runs as high as two hundred 
dollars, and also promise the man a certain advance to he spent at the 
next fiesta. The average wage is from sixty-two and one-half cents 
a day up to about seventy-five cents a day, and found. This, as a rule, 
includes three drinks of aguardiente a day. Some of the planters have 
secured negroes direct from the United States, and from Jamaica. 
These get about seventy-five cents a day, and found, except when rail- 
road contractors tempt them ofY by offering them from two dollars 
to five dollars a da>'. But to return to La Junta. 

We rode for a long distance through the rubber, and finally, ascend- 
ing a steep hill, found ourselves in the main street of the plantation 
village. Here was concentrated the life of the place, and the scene 
certainly was a busy one. Of the thirty or more native houses of 
bamboo and palm thatched, several were rapidly being turned into frame 
dwellings with tiled roofs, and built to stay. Beyond these was the 
long, one story house of the general manager and his baker's dozen of 
active voung American assistants. Then came the store, stocked with as 



isrnMrs ur TJ:iir.i\ri-:rj:C 



127 



large a varictv of g-oods as any village enii)nrium cnild Ixjast, and then 
a two-storv building, the lower part of which was the general dining 
hall, and the upper, the office of general manager and held superinten- 
dent. L)n the opposite side of the street was the carpenter's and hlack- 
smith's shop, the stables, etc. 

The active head of affairs, Mr. George Mann, caught sight of us 
alnidst as soon as we arrived, and not only bade us to supper, but insisted 
that we stay over night. This we decided to do, rather than t<^ ride the 
trail after nightfall. He then introduced us to his staff', or such of 
them as were not al)sent, and Messrs. Kramer, Hill, Zimmerman, Shu- 
feldt, Sleister, and Dr. l'".rwin. all }oung, active, and friendly, together 
with their capable chief, will long linger in my memory as types of 




RUBIO. — BRICK AND TILE FACTORY. 



Americans that are so eff'ectually conquering the tropical wilderness. 
Dr. Erwin bv the wa\-, is physician and surgeon for the plantation, and 
Air. Shufeldt is the son of Commodore Shufeldt of the United States 
Xavv, who surveyed the route for the Tehuantepec ship canal for the 
United States government, some years ago. Mr. Sleister I had already 
met, as he was on the train that bore me to Achotal. I did not see 
much of him, however, as he had a carload of Tennessee negroes in 
charge to deliver to La Junta ; and as one or two of them were "bad 
coons," and as licjuor was abundant at every stopping place, his hands 
were full most of the time. By the exercise of much patience and tact, 
and bv wearing a huge Alauser revolver while in their company, he 
finalh- cjot them all safelv there. 



128 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

There was still enough of daylight to have a look around, so we 
visited the various shops, the sawmill, brickyard and waterworks; 
inspected the native quarters, and got back just as supper was 
announced. We spent the evening- in the assembly room of the 
officers, smoking big, black Mexican cigars that have no harmful 
effect in that climate, but would be deadly in the north, and listening 
to home music from a well equipped phonograph. 

We retired about eleven, and had hardly gotten a good grip on our 
beauty sleep when a stir outside showed that something was doing. 
Not to miss anything, I went out upon the broad verandah, and found 
the young men saddling their horses, and equipping themselves for 
a moonlight ride. Seeing me expectant, they informed me that nine 
of the Tennessee negroes had skipped, doubtless to join some railroad 
gang, and for a short time get higher wages. As the company had 
paid their fare from the States to the plantation, and as the moral 
effect on the others would be bad if they were not brought back, it 
behooved those in charge to stop the runaways before they reached 
the railroad. And they certainly went about the matter as if they 
meant business. It was a thrilling sight to see them assembling, and 
I forgot that I was pajama clad and barefooted, and stood in the 
moonlight watching until they finally cantered off down through the 
valley and over the hills, and were lost to sight in the black wall of 
forest, into which the road ran. To finish this incident, I mav add 
that they overtook all of the runaways, and brought them back, and 
they went to work again just as if nothing had happened. 

The next morning after inspecting the rubber, and getting samples 
of earth for analysis, we took the road home, where we arrived safe, 
sound, and happy except for the vodadors and piuolcos. 

Plant life in Mexico seems to be exceptionally free from pests of 
all sorts. I did, in the course of my trip, see three caterpillar nests, but 
not in the Ticmi Caliente. I looked and inquired particularly for any 
enemy of the Cast ill oa. but found trace of none, and heard onlv of an 
ant that attacks the tree where it has been wounded at times, but that 
only rarely. Of the few trees thus attacked, nearly all had thrown out 
woody excrescences that were not only protecting the inner tissues, 
but seemed actually to be crowding the devourers out. So rare is it 
that a tree is thus attacked that the planters take no precaution against 
it. 

Speaking of ants, these busy workers are in evidence nearly every- 
where, and when the "marching ants" come in force, everything that 



IsrilMCS 01' TlillUANTEPEC 129 

can gets out of the \vay. TIk- lioiischoldcTs welcome these visits, as 
the ant army goes through c\rry crack and cranny in the house, killing 
mice, spiders, and insects of all sorts; in fact, making a clean sweep. 
When they call in the middle of the night, and announce their 
arrival Ijy mounting one's bed, and by the most vicious of 
bites, it is a l)it sudden, l)ut all one has to do is to get out of the way 
until their work is done, when they dejxirt with the curious rustling 
noise with which they came. Some of these armies march great dis- 
tances, and have huge nests, as much as fifty feet in diameter. 

The rubber tree is not singular in being free from pests — nearly 
all others seem to be equally so. It was a rare thing to see a leaf or 
a petal that had been blighted or eaten by any sort of insect. The reasons 
for this remarkable immunity from the usual pests are not far to seek. 
They will. I think, be found in the great abundance of birds, and no 
doubt in the wonderful equilibrium that nature has there established 
between the insects that are destructive to plant life, and the other insects 
that prey upon them. It is to be hoped that this balance may long be 
preserved. As a matter of caution, it might be well to state that the 
hunter who slaughters birds for their plumage will not find a cordial 
welcome among the Mexican planters. 

In the drv season, which of course was when rnv visit was made, 
there are but few butterflies and moths l)ut in the rainy season they are 
most abundant. Of these mv host had a collection which gave me a 
wonderful insisht into the winsfed beauties of that section. 



138 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



THIRD LETTER. 

Clearing and Burning by Contract — Danger from Fires — Gathering Cas- 
TiLLOA Seed — Testing Seed — Costly Seed Failures — Track Walking Under 
Difficulties — The "Boston Rubber Tree" — Morning Glory Vines — Arrival at 
Santa Lucretia — A Condensed Milk Lesson — Coatzacoalcos — Sleeping in the 
"Bird Cage" — Up the Usapanapa and Chichigapa Rivers — Plantation 
"RuBio" — A Fine "Bodega" — On Horseback Through Miles of Rubber — The 
Tapping Problem. 

THE planters in the Trinidad River district were so well informed, 
and so ready to impart their knowledge to one interested, that 
I felt as we journeyed back to La Buena Ventura that I was 
getting a pretty good grasp on the rubber planting situation. I 
had learned, too, specifically, what clearing, burning, planting, lining, 
staking, and cleaning involved. Indeed, as luck would have it, I ran 
across some of the men who take the contracts for cleaning, at various 
times during my journey. In certain cases the planters clear their own 
land. They prefer, however, to let it out by contract, as it does not cost 
so much, and is one less burden for them to l>ear. In \'era Cruz, clear- 
ing is usually done between the middle of Eebruary and the last of 
April. The contractor brings a large force of men who fell evervthing, 
the axemen handling the big trees, and the many machete men lopping 
l)ranches, cutting vines, and arranging all for a good burn. If the work 
is well done, and at the right time, the mass of fallen litter gets at least 
a month of hot, dry weather, which dries out the fallen timber almost 
beyond belief, and gives weeds and climbers no chance to spring up. 
This part of the work is very important, because if a poor 1)urn takes 
place, it involves the cutting and piling up of half burned tree trunks, 
and a second burning, which is costly. It is figured that in this work 
twenty-five men will clear about half an acre a dav. 

During the burning the planters are always on the watch to keep 
the fire from spreading, not only into the virgin forest, but into adjacent 
plantings. The danger from fires carried by subterranean roots which 
may smoulder for days, and then burst into flame, is no slight one. 
Indeed, several cases have occurred where the fire has spread into cleared 
land, and destro}-ed many hundreds of valuable rul)])er trees. To cite 
one case in point, it might ])e well to recall the loss of the \'arnev Rubber 
Co., who had a ])lantation on the Tehuantepec Railwav, and who lost 



/srnMCs or ri-nr.iXTurnc 



KV 



two hundred and tiftv acres of l\\()-yc'ar-( ild trees l)y tire in tlie dry 
season, said to liave l)een started l)y s])arks from a locomotive. 

After the l)um is tinislied, the ground is o])en and spongy, and in just 
tlie right onchtion for the reception of seed. If this seed is put in so 
as to catch the earlv rain, it gets a good start Ijefore tlie torrential rains 
come, when the soil is pounded down hard. This is the reason that seed 
])lanting the second rear is not a])t to i)rosper. and why it is hetter then 
to transplant from a well equip])ed nursery. The earliest bloom of the 
Castilloa api)ears about the first of March, the seed ripening within 
sixtv davs, and it is usually all gone thirty days later. The seeds are 




BODEGA ON PLANTATION RUBIO. 



gathered, as a general thing, as soon as ripe, and it is often a race 
between the planters antl parrots to see which will get the most, as the 
latter are very fond of them. The seed is secured l)y knocking the cones 
otT the branches of the trees with long poles. These cones are put in 
water, and allowed to stand over night, when the gluten surrounding the 
seed slightly ferments. The mass is then placed in a sieve, and the pulp 
is easily washed away. After a tinal washing, the floaters or unvitalized 
seeds are skimmed off, and the residue are dried on mats in the shade. 
As the vitahtv of the Castilloa seed is very slight, it is necessary to plant 



132 RUBBER PLAXTIXG ON THE 

within a week or two at the longest. It might he well to note here that 
Mr. Harvey kept some seeds alive by packing in charcoal, and that they 
germinated when planted several months later, but no one but a trained 
horticulturist would be likely to be successful with such an experiment. 
With regard to the planting of the seed, it should be remembered that 
the first rains are oftentimes followed by a week or two of dry weather. 
It is therefore best to wait until at least four inches of rain have fallen, 
that is. when planting in heavy soil, and to have a reserve of seed saved 
for failures, either from drought, washouts, or lack of germination. 

On one of the plantations I was shown the result of a very interest- 
ing experiment, which was designed to show why, of two seeds, planted 
near each other in apparently equally favorable positions, one produced 
a vigorous tree, while the other produced a weakling. To determine 
this, the planter selected three sizes of seeds and planted them under 
equal conditions, supposing naturally that the largest seed would produce 
the most vigorous plant. He learned, however, that size had nothing to 
do with it, as in some cases the smallest seeds produced gave the best 
result. The real difference seems to be. therefore, in the inherent vitality 
of the seed itself. There are a great many ideas regarding the best way 
of planting the Casfilloa, and there is no doubt Init that different methods 
are adapted for difference of situations. I am firmly convinced, however, 
that, in the region I visited, by far the best method of planting is at the 
stake, backed up by a small nursery, in order that the failures mav be 
made good. Anv one who has seen two-year-old seedlings as against 
two-year-old nursery plants will. I think, agree with me. 

Again and again was it impressed upon me how alert and careful 
the planter must be in preparing his ground, and especially in getting 
his seed at the right time, and getting it into the ground so that it shall 
have the proper start. And their knowledge has come through acknc^wl- 
edged failures. One good friend of mine bought a ton of seed at one 
dollar a pound, and was unlucky enough to have it all spoil. Another 
cleared hundreds of acres for which he failed to get anv seed, the clear- 
ing having to lie over until the year following. And these are but two 
of many instances which would discourage any but the most determined 
men. But such happenings do n;)t reach the saiue man twice. 

On our arrival at La Buena Ventura, mine host found a letter 
from a large planter down near Coatzacoalcos, inviting him to visit his 
place, and as that was just the direction in which 1 had planned to go, 
I resolved to embrace the chance to go with the best of guides. It 
therefore happened that early morning found us in the saddle, bound 



134 RUBBER PLAXTING OX THE 

for Santa Rosa, but not over the trail by which I had come in. This 
time it was over a clear path, through the planted rubber trees, dipping 
down into the forest, and over a road with a soft carpet of matted leaves 
two or three feet deep, and as springy as if made of rubber — a new trail, 
and all on La PUiena Ventura land. On reaching the railroad, we sent 
the horses back, and after waiting awhile, hoping for a train which 
might or might not run that day, we started to walk towards Santa 
Lucretia. where the new- road joins the National Tehuantepec Rail- 
road. Walking a railroad track under any circumstances is hard work, 
but that track was certainlv not made for tramps or actors. It had been 
hastilv laid in the rainv season so as to make connection at Santa 
Lucretia, and infrequent and slow though the trains were, it was already 
a godsend to the planters and travelers. We knew, also, that as soon as 
the dry season came it would be straightened, ballasted, and put in 
shape. But its prospective virtues did not make the walking any easier. 
It was not altogether because the sleepers were laid at uneven distances, 
and often not spiked to the rails, or that the grass had grown up and 
covered both with a slipperv tangle, nor was it the clayey mud that 
often rose flush with the rail tops, Init it was the combination of all 
these that tired us out ere we had gone very far. Still, we had no 
thought of backing out, and so plodded steadily on, our packs on our 
shoulders, our feet clogged with mud, and wondering if luck would 
send the construction train to our assistance. But the trip was not 
without its compensations. The day was gorgeous, and my companion, 
botanist and enthusiast as he is, talked of the trees and plants in a way 
that would make one forget any sort of hardship. 

Speaking of the forest, one of the most conspicuous trees is a sort 
■ )f a banyan, which has all the idiosyncrasies of that tree of many 
trunks, and grows to a great size. It is a species of Ficiis which has 
not as yet been identified, but is probably the Ficiis Bcnjaiiiiiia. ( )n 
tapping it gives a certain amount of latex, but of a very sticky nature, 
and i)robablv of no value. There are also a great many mahogany 
trees, but in the former lumbering operations the larger of them have 
been cut out, and while there are many of them that would square ])er- 
hajjs twelve or fourteen inches, there are not so many which woulil go 
up to eighteen inches, the old time test. However, mahogany is so plen- 
tiful that manv of the bridges across the streams on the forest trails 
are made of squared mahogany logs, one or two of them laid side liy 
side, and mahogan\- furniture is ver\' common in the ])l'inters" home 
furnishings. There is considerable //V/////// ritcc, and on tlie track we 



/S'll/MlS ()/■' I lUirAXTIil'llC 



'35 



were then walking it was often used for ties. Spanish ccchir is 
also quite abundant, and is one of the vahiable woods. 

In rco-ard to trees the old resident, and soinelinies die semi-old 
one, is very apt to ])oint out the rubber tree in its natural state as v(hi 
ride with him throui^h the forest, and if he knows anvthinir alxnit 
rubber, he ne\er makes any mistake. If he doesn't, he is verv apt to 
])oint out a tree whieh the planters call the "lloston rubber tree,"" and 
which the natives call the ■"chankarro."" It reallv looks like the Casfilloa, 
but is apt to prove a sur])rise to those who try to tap it. The trunk is 
(Mdy a hollow shell, and the interior is invariablv hlled with what are 
known as the tire ants, of whose presence the tapper is instanth- ajjprised 
when his iiiaclictc cuts through the thin film of bark. 









Z^^.-'-.- 




.a: ■ 

V V y 



PIECE OF ROAD ON PLANTATION RULIO. 



There are. also, many beautiful trees, such as the "royal"" and other 
palms, and an infinite variety of vines and climbers. Perhaps the most 
abundant vine down in that part of the countrv is the morning- glor\-, 
which is not an annual as it is with us, Imt it is a perennial and swarms 
up over the tree trunks, covering acres of forest with its dense foliage, 
and its beautiful bloom. To those who insist that the trunk of a rubber 
tree should not be exposed to the sun, I would suggest that thev allow 
the morning glory vines to cover it, as they will shade it perfectly, and 
do the tree no harm. At the same time, I am personally convinced that 
the tree needs no such shading. 

I must not forget one vine that we noted on our iournev. as it 



136 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

had a blossom that for size put in the shade anything that I had ever 
seen. I do not recall the botanical name, but it is of the family that 
produces what is known as the "Dutchman's pipe." We saw several 
of them, and finally secured a blossom. In size it was as large as an 
old fashioned Shaker bonnet, and must have weighed a pound and a 
half. It was not pretty, except in a bizarre tropical sense, but was 
simply a type of what the richest of soil, plenty of moisture, and con- 
stant warmth can produce. 

There seem to be few poisonous plants ; the most common is a lux- 
uriant shrub with a crown of handsome white flowers, which acts like a 
gigantic nettle, instantly paralyzing the hand that grasps it. This is 
very plentiful, and its Spanish name means "the evil woman plant." 

None of the forest through which we passed would be called prime- 
val as there were no trees that were over one hundred and fifty years 
old. Just why this is so, none can tell, but that the land was once 
densely inhabited is proved by bits of pottery, arrow heads, etc., that are 
to be found on every plantation, and in the railroad cuttings in great 
abundance. And that reminds me that at La Junta Mr. Shufeldt gave 
me a hideously interesting little clay idol which he found in a vegetable 
garden there. I unwittinglv left it on the table in my room at La 
Buena \'entura, and I wish to warn the genial householder that T am 
coming down soon purposely to recover it. 

Meanwhile, hot, perspiring but cheerful, we were plodding on 
towards the Tehuantepec Railway that was miles and miles in the dis- 
tance. Finally, however, we reached Sanborn, soon to be a metropolis ; but 
when w-e arrived it was simply a camp wdiere men were grading, felling 
the forest, and getting ready to put up a modern railway station, which 
is to have a telegraph and telephone office, and all sorts of modern 
conveniences. This place, bv the way, is about eight miles from La 
Junta, and will be its railway station. It is named after one of the 
prominent officials, who, besides his interest in rubber planting, has 
purchased a big block of land, and is going into lum])cring, brick making, 
and a variety of industries that will be of marked benefit to that section. 
At Sanborn we struck good luck, for we had not l)een there five minutes 
when a locomotive whistled, and soon the construction train crawled 
into sight. We boarded the flat car in front to keep from lieing set 
afire by sparks from the wood burning engine, and we continued our 
journey. 

Arriving at Santa Lucretia in due time, we (lisem])arked and 
wendecl our wav to the town ])ro|)er which consists of a hotel on stilts. 



/.V7//.1/(\V 01' riillUANTEPEC 



137 



a railway station, and a tVw native huts as a backgruund. With a rail- 
way camp close by, and witb tbc many Americans constantly goin,s^ and 
coming-, the town really ])resented a bnsy scene. The hotel is run by 
Major Elliott, a ])owerful man with a military bearing, very friendlv to 
those who behave, but a tritle stern with the semi-worthless natives that 
are ever to be found at a railroad end. We Jiad an excellent diimer. 




WILD RUBBER TREE 



/ACOALCOS RIVER. 



partly of native food, and partly canned goods from the States. Speak- 
ing of the latter, American manufacturers do not seem to realize that 
one of the best supply markets in the world is to be found among the 
planters and small hotel men in the tropics. Some do, of course, and 
some of the great merchants and mail order houses are cultivatino- the 



I30 RUBBER PLAXTIXG OX THE 

field most industriously and profitably, but most do not. A case in 
point, of tbis lack of appreciation came to my attention during this 
journey. A planter who is so thoroughly American that he would far 
rather buy of his own countrymen than of any other, used a great deal 
of condensed milk. That which he bought of English or Swiss make 
was white and sweet, while the American brand that he wanted to buy 
soon became in that hot, moist climate, of a chocolate brown color, and 
quite offensive. In the goodness of his heart he wrote the manufac- 
turers, telling them the whole story, and instead of being thanked, 
received a most insulting letter from an officer of the company. He 
wrote again, not in his former vein, but stating a few salient facts, and 
ended by remarking that as the English had for one hundred and fifty 
years been successfully supplying tropical markets, they would probably 
keep on until Americans had the sense to study their methods. 

Just before the train arrived, our party was reinforced by the 
arrival of Mr. R. (). Price, the general manager of Solo Suchil, who 
had been apprised to be on the lookout for us, and who told us that 
a steam launch would be waiting for us at the end of the railway journey, 
to take us up the Coatzacoalos River to Minatitlan, and later to the 
plantations on that and tributary streams. At length our train came, 
and we were on our way. The much vaunted National Tehauntepec 
road is no doul^t an engineering triumph, but what with earthquakes, 
morasses, and streams that are one day rivulets and the next raging 
torrents, it is not vet equal in equipment or service to a one horse road 
in the Far West. The trains run every other day. and get in on time 
very rarely. 

We finally arrived at Coatzacoalcos, the Atlantic terminus, two 
hours late, and there were welcomed by Mr. A. B. Luther, the gcranfc 
general of Plantacion Ruliio. Here two more Americans joined the 
partv, and boarding the steam launch, we steamed up to Minatitlan, a 
f|uaint old Mexican town where we were to spend the night. Beds had 
been l)espoken in the little hotel familiarly known as the "1iird cage,'' 
and we were soon sleeping the sleep of the just. 

With the first break of day we were up. had our coffee, and started 
out to see the place. As a matter of fact, there was not much to interest 
one at that earlv hour. Most of the inhabitants were still wrapped in 
the warm arms of the sleep god, whatever his Aztec name mav be, and 
the chief signs of life were the dogs, chickens, and turkey liuzzards. the 
latter the most independent and loathsome of all tlie feathered tribe. 
There is a fine of f\h\ dollars for killing one, and the creature knowing 



isrnMi's or rinuwxTiu'nc 



139 



this pursues its scavenginp^ operations with a rufifianly impudence that 
is (iisi^usting. It is said that eA'ery conimunit}- in those ])arts has one 
huzzard for every inhal)itant. According- to that. .Minatillan has Ujts 
of folks that do not appear in puhhc. for seated on fences, on roofs, 
swooping- (Unvn to rol) the dogs, fighting, flapping, and squawking, the 
l)uzzartls were legion. 

A little later we all assemhled at the boat landing, climbed over a 
lot of Indian dugouts, and were prepared for the trip up river. ( )ur 
journey that dav was to be up the Coatzacoalcos, the Usapanapa, and 
Chi.^higapa Rivers, some twenty miles, to visit plantation Rubio. We 




THATCHED VILLAGE ON THE UBERO PLANTATION. 



had elected to talk a lot about rul)ber planting, but the strange sights, 
the wonderful scenery, and the glory of the day drove all thought of 
"shop"' out of our minds. Bv tangled forests, great, grassy plains. 
Indian villages, and bamboo thickets, we went, disturbing sullen alli- 
gators, and great milk white cranes, and being hailed in unknown tongues 
bv the naked children on the river banks. 

When the noveltv of the scene had in a measure worn oft'. I availed 
myself of m\' privilege of asking questions, selecting the general man- 
ager of the Solo Suchil as \\\\ first victim. He responded most cor- 



140 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

dially, and I soon learned that his plantation was an amalgamation of 
three estates ; that it was named after the river on which it was situ- 
ated, and grew both coffee and rubber, the latter being used for shade. 
He had planted both from seed and from nursery stock but favored 
the former when practicable. His trees were from one to five years old, 
and there were about four hundred thousand of them. He, like all 
others, was of the opinion that it was fatal to allow the grass to get 
a foothold among the rubl)er trees. For this reason, when the rubber 
was planted alone, it was put in from seven to nine feet apart, and as 
a further precaution he was planting betweeen the rows a kind of sweet 
potato known as the "camate,'* which covered the ground with a dense 
mat of vines among which the grass would not grow.. This brought 
out the store of practical botanical knowledge of my friend, Harvey, who 
recommended the cow pea and the velvet bean for just this purpose, an 
opinion that I found shared by the others, notably Dr. W. S. Cockrell, 
another pioneer planter. 

After a two hours' ride we turned into Chichigapa Creek, a deep, 
silent waterwav about two hundred feet wide, and ere long we were 
tied up at the wharf that is part of the Rubio estate. As the banks 
are low, a substantial platform some six hundred feet long leads back 
to the bodega, or storehouse. This is a two-story building of brick with 
tiled roof on one side and glass roof on the other, and is something 
that every planter should have. It is, in fact, a dry house for corn and 
beans, and is fitted with air tight bins for the storage of these cereals, 
an effective protection against the omnipresent weevil and equally 
troublesome mold. 

The building that challenged our admiration for its beauty, how- 
ever, and later for its manifest utility, was the two-story dormitory that 
situated on an eminence further back, looked like a planter's mansion. 
On close inspection it was found to contain a dining room and kitchen, 
and sixteen sleeping rooms, all of which opened out on to a broad 
verandah, which was wholly enclosed in wire netting. The partitions 
between the rooms were made of burlap, painted over to give it a finish, 
a very practical and economical plan in a country where matched boards 
bring a high premium. 

To view the plantation proper, it was necessary to have recourse 
to the horse, and after lunch fpiite a party of us started through the 
typical forest trail towards the cleared and planted land at the further 
side of the estate. At length we emerged into the open and found our- 
selves on a ridge from which we had a view of hundreds of acres of 



isrnMCs or Tinir.ixTHPEC 



■41 



rich, roUino- land, all covered with L'listilloa trees ahuut a year old. W'e 
rode over this whole plantiiiL;, visited the four canii)s where the native 
workmen live in palm thatched houses, and examined the rubber trees on 
the hilltops, on side hills, and in the valleys, and when we were told 
that the stand of rubber embraced fifteen hundred acres, all cleared, 
burned, and planted in one short season, and that there were fully two 
million healthy trees, we fell to congratulating Manager Luther on the 
accomplishment of so marvelous a task. It took so long to do the wdiole 
of the sightseeing that it was dark when we entered the forest again for 
our two or three-mile return ride. ( )ur horses knew the way, however, 
and brought us safely through, and an hour later we were on the launch, 
steaming l)ack to Minatitlan. The voyage was without special incident, 
unless one were to cite the clouds of white moths that filled the air until 




.STEAMER "HOS KIOS ON XliE L\l.\ fZACOALCG--^. 



it looked as if it were snowing, and which finally drove us to cover in 
the cabin. 

The next day we took in a plantation far up the Coachapa River, 
owned bv a wealthy native, Sehor Sanchez. His interests were chiefly 
in cattle, although he had a little grove of wild seedling Casfilloas about 
ten years old, which were from sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and 
perhaps thirtv feet high. These we tapped in all sorts of ways, got an 
abundance of milk, and incidentally proved that neither native nor white 
man can tap a tree successfully without much practice and skill. 

Indeed, the next great problem that is to confront the rubber 
planters is that of tapping and preparing for market. One has only 
to look at the wdld trees in the forest and see how thev have been hacked 



142 



RUBBER PLAXTING ON THE 



and scarred by the natives, to appreciate the fact that the planters will 
need better work and greater care of their trees. If all of the natives 
were expert machete men, and good climbers, the problem would be easily 
solved, but the real good men in this line are scarce. It is a most inter- 
esting sight to see a skillful tapper, armed only with a rope and 
machete, cut the channels so that the sap runs from one to another with 
scarcely a drop spilled, every stroke of the uiaclietc l)eing just right. It 
is also equally disgusting to see a native who claims he knows how to 
tap mangle the bark, and able to climb only a foot or two without sli])ping 
down. The practical solution is going to involve two things : one is. 
the invention of a simple tool that is foolproof, and that cannot in any 
way injure the tree, and the second is a light, safe ladder that will allow 




THE TEHUANTEPEC MARKET. 



the ino:zo to reach the upper part of the trunk. Most of the planters plan 
to bleed the trees twice a year, in May and October. Some, however, 
hold that they can stand tapping much oftener, and most interesting- 
experiments are being inaugurated in the exploitation of this theory. 

The latex flows apparently as freely at one time of the year as it 
does another, but the dry season is undoubtedly the best for tapping, as 
there is no rain to wash away the milk, and the tree is resting then. If 
the cutting is done well, the scars soon fill in with new, smooth bark, 
which in no wav interferes with later working. The natural way, 
however, will be to drain one side of the tree at one time, and another 
at a subsequent ta])])ing. The planters are ailready ])lanning as to the 



/SI 1/ MI'S OI' llilli'ANTEPEC 143 

arraiii^ciiK'nts (if .^ani^s of men. and Ihe ])ay fur tapping ami ooagulating. 
The favorite nictlKMl undouljtedly will be to j^ivc each native a certain 
stint, measured by the amount of latex that he l)rin<4s in. I got a number 
of estimates as to the cost of tapping- and coagulating, based on actual 
work, and in no case was it more than ten cents a pound, Mexican. 

Another thing that the planters plan to do is to produce clean, dry 
rubber, and there is no reason why they should not accomplish it. Of 
the various means of coagulating that are devised by experts, the one that 
seems to appeal the most strongly to the practical planter on the Isthmus, 
is the use of the juice of the "amole"' vine, the Iponioca Bona nox, which 
is most abundant everywhere, and which apparently adds nothing to the 
rul)ber, and effects a (|uick and clean coagulation. 

After cofifee at the Sanchez abode, we returned to Minatitlan, retired 
early and at three o'clock the next morning were awakened by Mr. 
Luther, escorted to the launch, liidden a hearty good-bye and were on 
our way to Coatzacoalcos, to take the morning train for Tehuantepec. 
We had planned to take a river steamer, the Dus Rios, and visit the 
]ilantations far up the river, of which there are a lot, but a snag having 
punched a hole in the boafs bottom, it w-as forced to tie up for repairs, 
thus disarranging our plans. We therefore decided to go at once to the 
Pacific side, and "dry out" and rest, and so it happened that at nine 
in the morning we were again on the train, this time bound west. 



144 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



FOURTH LETTER. 

Across the Isthmus — Plantation "San Francisco" — View of the "Ubero" 
AND "La Crosse" Plantations — The Great Tehuantepec Plain — At the El 
Globo — Attacked bv a Vampire — The Zapotaco Women — Decs and Fleas — 
Salina Cruz — Back to Santa Lucretia — Mexican Justice — Sleeping Under 
Difficulties — A Night at a Railroad Camp — A Tapir Hunt — The Persistent 
"Pinoleo" — Achotal Again — Journeying North — Cattle Ranching — Taxes — 
Cordoba and Orizaba — Mexico City — A Look Backward — The Cow Pea and 
Velvet Bean. 

THE last letter of this series left us just boarding the train at Coat- 
zacoalos for the journey across the Isthmus to the City of Tehuan- 
tepec. The journey did not take the whole of the month that 
has intervened, but it took long enough in all conscience, vet it was not 
without interest. Almost at once I struck up an acquaintance with a 
German, named De Verts, who, I soon learned, owned the plantation 
San Francisco up in the Dos Rios region. His plantings were of 
coffee and CastiUoa, and of the latter he had some sixty thousand trees 
two and one-half years old. These were planted seven and one-half 
feet apart one way, and fifteen feet apart the other, with coffee between. 
His trees averaged about eight inches in diameter. From his descrip- 
tion the stand appeared to be an excellent one. 

After his departure a friend promised to point out to me a man, 
who more than any other down that way, was making "easv mone\ " — 
none other than a traveling dentist who finds his patients only among 
the natives. He goes from village to village doing a rushing business 
at great profit. It is said that many who have no trouble at all with 
their teeth have them filled in order to show the gold, and that they 
never weary of grinning, with that end in view. I did not see the 
dentist, for at this juncture we stopped at a station, where on a siding 
was a private car, on the platform of which stood Sir S. Weetman Pear- 
son, the famous English constructor of tropical railroads. We all wanted 
a sight of him, and were rewarded by a l^rief view of a thick set, deter- 
mined looking Britisher, who had an air of meaning business all the 
time.. He was said to be discharging men right and left, and generally 
upsetting the policy of procrastination and inefiiciencv that had been 
more or less characteristic of the management in the jiast. 

The National Tehuantepec Railroad is without doul)t of great 



146 Ri'BBER PLANTING ON THE 

present and prospective value, both to the planters and to the owners. 
Its trains, which run every other day, are always well patronized, and 
it is wonderful how those children of nature, the Indians, enjoy crowd- 
ing into the third class cars, and riding even a few miles. Alanv of the 
poorer ones save money for months, ride fifty or a hundred miles, and 
contentedly walk back. To them the trains are "flyers," and the cars 
palatial, but to the white man the many delays, particularly at stations, 
are very irritating. A resident of the country accounted for the long 
waits by stating that an engineer is paid two dollars an hour, and there- 
fore the longer the run. the more he gets. He further intimated that 
if the train got on too fast, steam was allowed to get low, or some of 
the machinery suddenly needed repairs, for which a stop was necessary 
— but the narrator may have been yarning. 

Shortly after noon we passed the handsome plantation house of 
the Boston Ubero Company, and had a good view of the many acres 
of pineapples that they have under cultivation. We also had a good 
view of the land of the Isthmus Rubber Co., a little later, and still 
further on was the La Crosse Plantation Company, which showed manv 
acres planted to sugar cane, and consideral)le rul^ber. 

Earl}- in the afternoon we passed over the low mountainous ridge 
that separates the Atlantic side from the Pacific, and left behind the 
hot, moist atmosphere that had become somewhat trying, and were in 
a climate bone dry, and seemingly much cooler. We then had a fine 
view of Rincon Antonio, the new railroad town that is rapidly assuming- 
shape, and that will give to the workers in the shops a fine, healthy 
climate instead of a fever ridden one. 

Continuing our journey, we next came to the valley of the San 
Geronimo, healthy, cool, free from epidemics, and a little later to the 
vast Tehauntepec plain. Here are more than a million acres of rich 
land as level as a billiard table, covered with a sparse growth of chap- 
parel, and awaiting only irrigation to turn it into a paradise. Nor is 
the water far ofl:', for the n-iountains, which are in plain sight froni the 
train, furnish abundant sui)pl\-, and every opportunity for huge reser- 
voirs. 

After a stop of twenty minutes at a small station to watch a man 
who was chopping wood — at least that was the only a])parent reason — 
we reached our journey's end, arriving at the city of Tehauntepec two 
hours late, ^^'e had elected to stop at the El Globo Hotel while in the city, 
and in that made no mistake, inv it is the best there. From the \)Vo- 
prietnr's own advertisement I have it that ther? are "R )oms fa';in<_;ton 



isrnMCs or riunMxri-rnc 



U7 



two different street. Coinodios and well ventiloted." Moreover, with the 
true, up-to-date hotel spirit, he has the followin.o- card in each room : 
"Tlif i)n.i)riotors of this hotel :irc only rcsponsable of lost of valu- 
able objects or money when delivered to themselves by passengers." 
He handled the i'jiolish lans^uaiie well, and knew il. and had a pro- 
found pity for a ])hysician nearhy who put out the sign "Englische 
Espoken." 1diis hotel luan was well worth the journey to Mexico to 
meet. He is hv hirth a Frenchman, who came over with Maximilian. 




DEL CORTE. — LABORERS CAMP AXU CLKAKlNt 



and after that unfortunate ruler lost his head, elected never to return. 
He is verv short, alert, and the picture of vigorous old age. Occasionally 
he gets a bit overstimulated, and then puts on an immense pair of 
cavalry boots, and strides about the place, giving orders in a thunderous 
voice, and entertaining his guests with reminiscences of European wars, 
that are full of thrill,, dash, imagination, and doubtless some facts. 

The hotel was a large, rambling, one-story affair, with tiled floors and 
small, cell like rooms opening out on an inner court that contained both 
dining room and kitchen. The bed rooms contained two folding canvas 
cots, each of which had one sheet, one red blanket, and one little striped 
pillow that was as hard as if stuft'ed with shot. There were also two 
chairs, a table, and a wash bowl and pitcher of agate ware. The one 



148 RUBBER PLAXTING ON THE 

window opened to the floor, and to keep thieves out and guests in, 
was latticed with half-inch iron bars. It was luxury, however, when 
compared with the native huts, and we rested well, and had no advent- 
ures. To be sure, I did have a queer experience the first night when 
I lay down for awhile with one hand hanging down l)y the side of 
the bed, and on drawing it up something dropped off with a soft thud 
that had me wide awake in an instant. A light and a search revealed 
nothing, and I came to the conclusion that it was one of the small vam- 
pire bats that are common in Mexico, and that alight so gently on man 
or animal that even if wide awake they do not know it. So common 
are they, and so troublesome, that horses and mules are invariably kept 
under cover after dark, as these little blood-seekers rarely venture into 
houses. 

The next morning it was quite cool, as a norther was blowing, 
and the thermometer registered only ninetv-five. On arising, we took 
our clothes in our arms, and clad onlv in pajamas, walked down the 
sandy street two blocks to the baths, where we luxuriated for an hour 
or more. After coffee, we visited the market, and saw the far famed 
Tehuantepec women in their verv striking headdress, of which so much 
is said ; but aside from its becoming effect, no one seems to know much 
about it. I personally was interested to see how it was made, and so 
walked behind some of the dusky beauties as they marched off", and took 
a good, long look. The headdress is simply a white dress with a wide 
flounce around the bottom. This flounce is starched stiff and put upon 
the head so that it stands up like a huge ruffle. The rest of the gar- 
ment, sleeves and all, hang down the back. I almost wish, however, 
that I did not know this, as the effect is not half as artistic since my 
eyes were opened. 

There was really little of sightseeing in Tehuantepec ; the market, 
the pueblo across the river, the ruins left by the earthquake four years 
before, were about all. Perhaps it was the climate, but it was more 
fun to sit on the brick sidewalk in front of the hotel and watch passers- 
by, dog fights, and predatory pigs than to chase around after information. 
Anyhow, there was no rubber grown there, and rubber was my errand to 
the Isthnnis. Speaking of dogs, every Mexican and In<lian in the hot 
country is a dog owner on a generous scale. Nor does he care what 
the breed, or the size, so long as the dog has four legs and a l^ark. 
Thev are, as a rule, a mangy lot, exceedingly lean, and many of them 
are really half coyote. All are plentifully supplied with fleas, which 
thev generouslv divide with all with whom thev come in contact. 







■ ■TfiF^ 








I50 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

We left Tehuantepec on the morning when the first case of smaUpox 
was reported, not for that reason, but because our visit was ended. It 
is a curious coincidence, but our departure from Coatzacoalcos was 
marked by the reporting of their first fatal case of yellow fever. 

In spite of the fact that the clock at the El Globo had stopped, that 
the town clock in the plaza was slow, and that no one knew within half 
an hour just what time the morning train left, we succeeded in catching 
it, and arrived in Santa Lucretia in time for the midday meal. Major 
Elliott, whom we met on the way down, gave us a hearty greeting, but 
could give no information regarding the construction train to take us 
back to Santa Rosa. There were, he said, rumors of an accident, and no 
train had been through for two days. Some said it would be a week 
before thev would be running again. As it had set in to rain hard, we 
possessed our souls in patience, and prepared to spend the rest of the 
day and the night with the Major. He readily made room for us, 
although the house was full, and then proceeded to give us an idea of 
Mexican justice. It seems that an Italian workman, on a prolonged 
drunk, had for some days been terrorizing Santa Lucretia. After he 
had chased natives to his heart's content, he fell into the habit of bom- 
barding the Major's hotel with stones, and casting lurid reflections 
upon the character of all its inmates, from the proprietor down. These 
attacks were passed over with silent contempt, until one of the stones 
hit the Major's son, who lost his patience, and with promptness and 
despatch thrashed the aggressor. Unfortunately in the doing of this 
he made the man's nose bleed, whereupon he was promptly hustled ofif 
to jail in a neighboring town, and it was only after three days of diplo- 
matic and financial effort that he was released. The Italian was not 
arrested. 

The Mexican laws, as will be seen from the foregoing, are radically 
different from those that are so often broken in "The land of the free 
and the home of the brave," l)ut they are well fitted to the natives of 
that country, and act as a restraint to visitors, particularly those who 
feel superior to the dark skinned owners of the country. Eor example, 
if a foreigner gets in trouble with a native, even if the latter attack 
him first, he is apt to be treated very much as if he were the aggressor. 
1 know of one case, and heard of several others, where Americans were 
attacked bv drunken or angry mozos armed with machetes, and who to 
save their lives, shot their assailants and were (|uickly arrested, and in 
spite of the fact that they ])rove(l that they acted only in self defense, 
remained in durance from six months to a vear there before being 



ISTHMUS OP TEHUANTEPEC 



i=;i 



released. This, of euurse, is not rij^lit, and yet, for tlie vis^fjrous — man} 
times lawless — irresponsibles that crowd into a country that is just 
awakening-, as Mexico is, some such law is an absolute necessity, or the 
anemic population would be crowded to the wall, or wiped out. There 
are nian\- provoking- thing's aboiu tin- .Mexican laws; for example, if a 
lum])er team should run over and kill a native, the authorities in their 
anxiet\ f(^r witnesses, and to place the responsibility, are apt to arrest 
not onl\ the drivers of the team, but all the rest of the gang, and for a 
time look with suspicion on everyl)od\- comiected with the luml)er busi- 
ness. 

The afternoon wore slowl\- away, and it rained harder everv minute. 
At last came supper and then lied. Here, as elsewhere, folding canvas 




DEL CORTZ. — RO.\D THROUGH RUBBER. 



cots were the only beds used, and while they are superior to an earthern 
floor, they do give one a crick in the back. Still we were thankful for 
our many mercies, and settled down to sleep. ( )ne bv one the dim oil 
lamps were extinguished, and all was quiet except the monologue indulged 
in by one guest who was somewhat inebriated. The Major reasoned 
with him, begging him to go to sleep, which at last he did ; but the 
relief was only temporary, as he soon l^egan again, talking in his sleej:). 
Just as. used to this, we were dozing, a sudden crash shook the house — 
a guest had fallen (lut of bed. The Major told him what he thought of 
such carelessness, and what he would do if it happened again, and once 
more quiet reigned. For a short time only, all was still, and then 



152 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

clump, clump, clump, along the passage between the cots came a heavy 
tread. Peeping out from between the mosquito bars, I saw a man clad 
only in heavy boots, tramping up and down the room. The Major 
discovered him at the same time, and wrathfullv inquired what he was 
aljout. "Just taking exercise,"" was the reply. Then really tlie Major 
let himself out. It was truly a rhetorical masterpiece that he delivered 
himself of, and the offender at last reluctantly agreed to i)ut off his 
constitutional until the morrow, and went back to bed. 

It was still raining when we awoke, and we sat around all the 
forenoon waiting for the train, or for better weather. It was then that, 
looking at the passing uwzos. I had a chance to see the native raincoats 
of cane and cocoa fiber that are the only mackintoshes the Indians use. 
They look far better and cleaner in a photograph than otherwise, and 
rubber manufacturers in the States need not fear that rubber markets 
will ever seriously seek them. 

At two o'clock that afternoon, as it was raining only a httle, we 
loaded our belongings on a mozo, and started to walk the track to the 
railroad camp, twelve kilometers away. We got there finally, boots covered 
with mud, damp, perspiring, and wearv, and were welcomed to the 
engineer's quarters that consisted of five box cars fitted up as dwellings, 
full of material comforts, and inhabited by several young and friendly 
Americans. 

The head of this engineering household was Mr. F. M. Ames, 
chief engineer of the Vera Cruz and Pacific Railway, who has for 
seventeen years been at work railroad building, all the time in the 
tropics. Indeed, he headed the corps that surveyed the National Tehuan- 
tepec road, cutting his way through the densest sort of jungle, and 
establishing camps where now are thriving settlements. Mr. Ames 
knew the country, the people, and the animals, and we were soon 
launched into talk about the wild dwellers of the forest. ( )f the cat 
tribe, there are quite a number of large and active specimens. The 
leader of all these is the ounce, or as the natives call it, the tigrc. and 
next to him come a great variety of spotted cats, diminutive specimens 
of the jaguar tribe. They never attack man, and when hunted invariably 
take to a tree, although befcire doing so they often stop and finish a 
dog or two, which they are fully capable of doing. They are more or 
less of a nuisance about ]ilantations as they have a great fondness for 
turkeys and chickens. 

Man}- of the smaller mammals of the temperate zone are also very 
common, such as foxes, rabbits, skunks, squirrels, black and brown, and 



/.V77/.l/r.V or Tlilll'AXTEPllC 



153 



nionkcNs. Tliis latter animal. I rciirct to saw was conspicuously niissmj^ 
at the time ot' nu- visit, the storv heiiii; that a _\ear or two before 
thev had taken yellow fever, and nearly all of them died. 

It was during- this most interestiui;- chat that su|)])er was announced, 
and we were soon luxuriating- on ham and e^^s. hot biscuits, and tine 
cofifee that the Chinese cook knew how to prepare t(j perfection. I could 
not help remarkino- tliat the Chinaman was already considerably in evi- 
dence as a cook in the cities, at railway camps, and on plantations. 
Indeed, there are many who l)elieve that the labor ])r.)blem for the planter 
will be solved by the importation of a stif^cient number of them. It is 
the o^eneral judgment, liowever. that while they may be taught to clean 
the rubber from weeds and vines, and to do a certain amount of culti- 




TREES ON FILISOE.X. 

[Photo Copyright by C. B. W'aite.] 

vating, that they will not be of much use either in forest clearing, or in 
tapping. In addition to this, the prices that the Chinese companies want 
for securing coolies is at the present time much t(^o high to allow of their 
profitable use. 

Mr. Ames, his two assistants, Messrs. Jones and Hawkins, my com- 
panion and I spent a very pleasant evening in what perhaps might be 
called the ]iarlor car. and later adjourning to the sleeping car. forgot 
everything earthlv until awakened in the early morning by the shrill whist- 
ling of a locomotive. This was the signal for breakfast and an early start. 
In due time we boarded a flat car in front of th.e engine, and were oti for 
Santa Rosa. We sat in a row on the extreme front of the car. ready to 
jump if it left the track. Along the route the worthy chief showed us 



154 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

where such sHght mishaps had occurred, explaining" that, until the 
coming of the dry season, and it was possible to put in ballast, such a 
condition of affairs had no remedy. 

We reached Santa Rosa in due time, and as a souvenir of my visit, 
Mr. Ames gave me a cedrilla nut, a native remedy for all kinds of snake 
bites, as well as for coast fevers. I have since learned that the mahogany 
cutters, and other foresters of the tropics, put great faith in it. and 
rarely venture into the forest without it. 

Leaving the railroad we struck into the new trail already men- 
tioned, hid our luggage until a iiiozo could be sent for it, and started 
to walk to La Buena Ventura. The rain had ceased, the sun was 
shining brightly, and every bird in the forest was singing a song of 
rejoicing. Not always in tune, however, for the genuine feathered 
warbler of the hot country is not at all musical. The chachilatta thinks 
it sings, but as a matter of fact it simply "chachilatters," and that word 
just describes the sound. A sort of wdld hen is this bird, and one that 
is in constant hysterics. 

After a walk of about fifteen minutes, we emerged from the forest 
and ascended to the higher ground where grows the rubber. To our 
regret we arrived too late to join in a tapir hunt that took place in that 
very orchard. The tapir is the largest wild animal in the Isthmus, and 
although quite plentiful, is so shy that it is rarely seen. It is perfectly 
harmless, and its flesh is esteemed a delicacy by the natives. One of 
them bv some chance wandered into the rubber, and the son of my host 
fired a charge of shot, knocking him over. He recovered in an instant, 
and rushed away, taking another charge with him. 

We did not tarrv to talk tapir, however, but hastened on. both of us 
anxious to get our mail. As I had received no letters since leaving the 
City of Mexico, that longing had a reasonable basis, but when I appreci- 
ated the difficultv in getting letters through, T did not wonder at the 
delav, but marvelled that any mail at all reached me. So we hastened 
on over the rubber covered hills and finally reached the ridge on which 
stands the house, and on which, too, is grouped the marvellous collection 
of tropical plants and trees referred to in a previous letter. Many of 
these, by the way, were obtained through the courtesy of the officials in 
far distant British botanical stations, notably, Calcutta, Singapore, and 
stations on the west coast of Africa. Indeed. Mexico owes to these 
officials and to Mr. Harvey's cnteri)rise the introduction of the Kickwia 
Africanus and the Hcvca Brasilicnsis. 

We reached the plantation house at last, and everyone welcomed 





■1^ 



"%. 












'sr^'^-'-S 






^"%^i 






^.;:A»»»^. 







..%f'»*- 



^4 ' 






►-;*--*»».i^l^ 



156 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

us warmly. The tame macaw, the little green parroquette. Lora the 
parrot, and even Bola, the big yellow tomcat, vied with the dogs in an 
enthusiastic ovation. Things seemed to be al)Out as we had left them, 
and except for the fact that my black shoes had gathered a fur of green 
mold, and one of them was occupied by an enormous spider, I was 
perfectlv content. Speaking of spiders, there are many of them, but 
they are the least of the insect troubles. If left alone, they are harmless 
and not much in evidence, but the rodador, the [^iiiolco, the chaqitista! — 
they are looking for trouble. The rodador is like the black fly of the Xorth 
American woods. It is in some places most al)undant, and its bite raises 
an itching lump that lasts several days. After a little, however, one 
becomes inoculated with rodador virus, and the only result is a small 
black spot that scales ofif without any itching or burning. They trouble 
some newcomers exceedingly, but I found them only a slight discomfort, 
not important enough to take any special precaution to- mitigate. 

Among the insects that are most easily domesticated, and that 
attach themselves with instant affection to the passing traveler, I should 
name the p'molco, the cojichitdo, and the garrapafa. They are all related, 
and are of the tick family. The pinole has a habit of associating with 
himself several millions of others, each one the size of a pin point, and 
hanging on a leaf or twig over a trail where animals or men are accus- 
tomed to pass. When the branch is touched, they instantly catch on to 
whatever touches it, and proceed to distribute themselves over the body 
and seek for tender spots whereupon to feast. I had a most abundant 
and energetic collection of piuolcos on several occasions, Init got rid 
of them without much troulile. 

The coiichiido is simply a pinolco that has not been blotted out early 
in life, and who grows into a fairly sizeable tick. He does not burrow 
into the flesh, but simply hangs on, and grows fat off the animal of his 
adoption. The garrapata is the pinolco grown to maturity, and is a good 
large ablebodied tick that fastens himself upon his victim, and is very 
reluctant to let go. Another little pest that troubles some people is the 
chaquistc. a fly so minute that one can hardly see him. and that hides 
itself in the hair of the head, its bite being like the sting of an electric 

needle. 

There are, of course, mosquitoes, although personally I was troubled 
verv little by them during the whole of my trip, and ordinary fleas are to 
be found in the towns and cities from one end of the country to tlie other. 
The insect that I most dreaded, however, and which was described to 
me bv many of the old time residents, was the moyaqnil. This is a grub 



isTiiMCs or i/iin\i\riiriiC 



157 



whicli hurniws in the llrsli, and which when a])|)niachin^ nialurity is 
alK)Ut an inch l<'nL;. It is .su])])i iscd t(i l)c liatchcd from the egg of a fly, 
some sav a butterlly, and is very easily (Hsposed of if one knows what 
it is. When once imbedded in the tlesh. it has the appearance of a blind 
boil, litu under a magnifying glass, the head of the creature can be seen 
just above the skin, and a little sticky substance, such as rubber sap, 
suffocates it, and it is easily extracted. 

The next two days were set a])art for more ])lantation visiting, but 
my good luck, as far as weather was concerned, suddenly fled. It rained 
so hard that traveling would have been torture, and visiting folly, so on 
the third da\ I turned niy face towards the City of Mexico — a far cry, 
however, for first must come a long afternoon's tram]) along the railroad 
track to Achotal. We did it, reaching the town at dusk. Then followed 




FILISULA IX llv I'ALMV D.WS. 

Photo Copyright by C. B. Waite. 



the wait until one in the morning, when the train arrived. We waited 
on cots in Antonio's palatial shed, which we shared with mo::os. dogs, pigs, 
mules, horses, and the "murderer." The last named was the only really 
interesting bit of scenery there. He appeared soon after the rest were 
asleep, and crouched by the side of the door of the next hut. his sullen 
face filled with hate, his hand toying with the hilt of a wicked looking 
knife. He wasn't after us, so we let him alone. At 12.30 we got up, 
took our traps, stumbled over a family of sleeping porkers that w^ere 
Iving in the passage between the huts, sidled down a narrow plank to 
the railroad track, squeezed in between a lot of iiiocos who. wrapped 
in blankets, covered the depot platform, and awaited the coming of the 



158 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

train. W'liile we sat there, one of the uiozos roused up, and hegan to 
talk to my companion. After a time, l\Ir. Harvey turned to me and 
said : 

"Here is a most remarkable thing-; this man was on his wav to ni}- 
plantation to get work, wdien some of the railroad men told him that I 
drove my laborers out in the field early in the morning, hitting them with 
the flat of the machete, that I fed them very poorly, and made them 
sleep in a fenced enclosure that had no roof over it, so he didn't dare 
come. That is the way they try to get our help for themselves." 

At length, after what seemed an interminable wait, the train arrived, 
and we got aboard. The train boy had some canned beans and crackers 
from which we made a hearty meal, and then, stretching out on the seats, 
we slept as best we could until we reached the l^reakfast station at Perez. 
The breakfast was fair, but the fruit we bought later was reallv what 
made life worth living. At every railway station, women and children 
gathered under the car windows with fruits, flowers, native made candies, 
and the great variety of sweet cakes of which both Mexicans and Indians 
are very fond. I got a dozen oranges for ten cents, and thev were 
simply delicious. A fruit that I had been very anxious to taste was the 
sapadillo, produced by the tree from which the chicle comes, and, finding 
them on sale at last, I immediately invested. It is about the size of an 
apple, with a skin like the potato, the ]mlp tasting like gelatine filled 
with brown sugar. I also sampled many other fruits. Of them all, as 
might be expected, the banana is the most common, and I observed several 
varieties that are never seen in the States. Some tinv yellow ones, a 
little larger than one's thumb, have an extremely delicate flavor, and are 
delicious. Of this family is a large plantain wdiich is either fried or 
broiled, never being eaten raw, and which is extremely palatable. There 
are a great variety of other fruits which appear at certain seasons, such, 
for example, as the sour sop, a sort of pear with a prickly alligator skin 
hide, and which tastes like sour snow mixed with cotton Ijatting. 

During the forenoon we rode through a country largely given up to 
cattle ranches. Of domestic animals in Mexico, the cattle are perhaps 
the most valuable, and even with the poor strain of stock that is bred, 
many large fortunes come to the owners of the rrmches. Besides this, 
those who go into the cattle business have no trouble at all in getting 
help, as the native Mexican is a natural cowbo)-, and if he has but a ponv 
and a big set of spurs, he is willing to work as he is at no other calling. 
Some of the more progressive ranchers are crossing their cattle with 
imported stock, and getting fine results. Most of the rubber planters 



jsrnMrs oi' riunwxTi-Piic 



159 



keep a certain minil)er of callle for their own iniinediate wants, and 
for feeding the hel]). and occasionally they are ahle to get a little fresh 
milk; l)iit few of the cows are good milkers, and for native use, goat's 
milk is very extensively used. 

One thing that 1 had a chance to do on this forenoon's journey 
was to look over the notes that 1 had taken relative to the manner in 
which real estate, and particularly plantations, are taxed. This is iKjt 
an interesting stibject to the casual reader, so if he will kindly skip a 
few paragraphs, and allow others the ])rivilege of reading, it will he 
esteemed a favor. It seems that there is an actual tax for the transfer 
of property, which is called traslacioii dc domino, assessed in the follow- 
ino- manner: Two ])er cent, is charged on the value stii)ulate(l in the deed. 




FILISOLA WATER FRONT AT PRESENT. 

[Photo Copyrighted by C. B. Waite.] 



provided that value is equal to or more than the official value, the latter 
being the value on record established at the last sale of the property, or 
if there has not been a recent sale, established by the valuation com- 
mittee, called the iiiiita calificadora. This two per cent, is the state tax. 
and on this two per cent, is charged thirty per cent, federal tax. If 
this transfer tax is not paid immediately after the execution of a title, 
a tine of twentv-four per cent, per annum on the amount of sale, or the 
official value if the property is charged. Government registration of a 
title is not allowed unless this transfer tax has been paid. This transfer 
tax applies onlv on real estate, and is charged only when property 
changes hands. 

Countrv real estate {fiiica nistica) is calculated as follows: Six per 



i6o RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

cent, of the value is figured ; upon this amount five per cent, is charged 
as a state tax for the year, and upon this same amount thirty per cent, 
is charged as a federal tax. These taxes are payable the first of each 
quarter or yearly in advance. Failure to pay during the first month 
of each quarter subjects one to a fine of six and one-quarter per cent, 
for the first month, twelve and one-half per cent, for the second month, 
and for the third month, or thereafterwards, twenty-five per cent. The 
only products in the locality that I visited where taxes are charged are 
cofifee, sugar, and tobacco, and upon these four cents per are is levied. 
This arc is one-hundredth part of a hectare, and a hectare is 2.471 acres. 
On this four per cent., thirty per cent, is charged as a federal tax. 
These taxes may also be paid quarterly or yearly, and if not paid during 
the first fifteen days of each month, a fine of six per cent, is charged and 
if not paid during the first two months of each quarter or later, twent}- 
five per cent, is charged. It will be seen that these taxes are very light, 
and the government gives the planters the privilege of making their own 
manifests as to the area of the land under cultivation, and invariably 
accepts these in good faith. 

~ That night we spent in Cordoba, and the next morning went early 
to Orizaba to recuperate. We both were in need of rest, and felt the 
effect of that fine dry climate almost at once. Orizaba, be it said, is £ 
most civilized city, quite a resort for health seekers, and its guardians 
look with great disfavor upon the free and easy inhabitants of the coun- 
try south. I was somewhat indignant at the looks cast upon me l^y the 
policeman, until I learned that it was against the law to wear a revolver, 
so I gladly unshipped mine, and stowed it away in my bag. Not that 
the city is really prudish. It runs a big public gambling house, which 
every dweller patronizes, and the profits from which go for municipal 
improvements. 

I met many Americans there, among them Maxwell Riddle, who 
was shivering with calentura, and was hastening back to Tierra Blanca 
to sweat it out; John W. Byam, on his way to the San Marcos planta- 
tion, accompanied by Mr. Wood, his manager, who was just back from 
the Congo Free State ; Mr. Cavanaugh of Perez, and many others. 

We luxuriated in Orizaba, attended the theatre, saw the poorest 
centimatograph show on earth, learned from the natives that the Ameri- 
can national hymn is "There's a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.'" 
and thus improved both mind and body. 

Finally I was rested, and Mr. Harvey had secured a lot of rare 
orchids from a learned old ^Icxican horticulturist there, and further 



1 62 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

arranged for an exploring trip with him later, and the time had come to 
part. I tried hard to get him to visit New York with me, but with the 
true tropical dread of pneumonia and grippe, he sturdily refused. With 
a simple handshake we parted, but I wish he could have looked into my 
heart, and read there the gratitude that I felt, and how I appreciated the 
hospitality and consideration that he had shown to the tenderfoot who 
dropped in so suddenly upon him, rode his best horse, stole the affections 
of his parrot, and wore a hole in his favorite canvas chair. 

On my return to the City of Mexico almost the first people that I 
met were Messrs. Warren and William Fish, Mr. Charles E. Sieler, Mr. 
S. D. Dorman, and Dr. W. S. Cockrell, all of whom have interests down 
in the Trinidad River district. I had met these gentlemen before, with 
the exception of the last named, and as he has been interested in rubber 
cultivation for nine years, I was glad to get an expression of opinion 
from him. He is a very earnest advocate of close planting. I believe 
he laid it down as a rule that the distances between the trees should be 
six feet and six inches. He has also gone into the subject of smothering 
the grass by the use of the cow pea, and strongly recommends the whip- 
poorwill variety. He said that his own observations proved that when 
the Castilloa was planted in a soil that consisted of a thin layer of loam 
over gravel, the trees did very well for three or four years, and after 
that seemed not only to stop growing, but that they produced very little 
lofc.v. 

His remarks remind me that in transferring my notes I left out my 
visit to Filisola, a plantation that is not only an acknowledged failure, 
but one that is practically abandoned. As the record of failure is often 
of more value than is the story of any number of successes, I am going to 
add it right here. 

It was hot — awfull\- liot — as we climbed up the hillside to the 
rubber trees. On the way we walked in single file, constantly thrashing 
our leggings with switches to dislodge the clinging piiiolcos. On the 
rolling ground above the landing, we found a stand of trees, said to be 
seven thousand in number, planted about twelve feet apart. Most of 
them were in the sun, but quite a lot were in among banana trees, and 
had good shade. Those in the sun were knee deep in grass, which was 
not of one year's growth, but showed a permanent sod. Those in the 
shade were free from grass. All of the trees, howeycr, looked aged, not 
in size, but from the wrinkled condition of the bark, and the gray lichen 
that covered it. Yet those trees were but seven \ears old. They \-ielde(l 
some lafc.v, but the most o])timistic seller of ruliber planting stock would 



IS ri I MI'S OF riiin'AXTiiPEc 



163 



not dare predict that tliey would ever j^^row another foot. Thev looked 
matured, finished, discourai^ed. and a ])liysical examination of the soil 
explained it. A tliin leaf mold, then sandv clav with a trace of iron, then 
clay, -and the whole as dry as a smoked herrinij, was what it showed. A 
variety of opinions were ])ut forw'ard as to the cause of the failure of 
this venture — mismanagement, poor soil, had seed, i^rass, etc. — l)ut to 
my mind the soil told the whole story. 

I have had so many incpiiries concerning tlu' cow pea that I want 
to add a word concernint;- it. The hotanical name of the f)rdinary variety 




RUBBER TKK 




MdNTHS OLD FROM SEED. 



is the Jlgiia kantaing. It is one of the well known leguminous plants 
of the southern states, grown ]:)artlv for fodder and partlv for ha\-. It 
makes the land richer because it returns to it so much of the mineral 
matter taken from the soil, and in addition much nitrogen from the air. 
There are a number of varieties used through the southern states, such 
as the "clay." the "unknown," and the "whippoorwill." The advantages 
of the cow pea are, it is a nitrogen gatherer ; it shades the soil in summer, 
leaving it friable and loose ; it has a large root development : is adapted 
to almost anv sort of soil ; stands heat and sunshine well ; and if sown 



i64 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 

thickly, will, by its rapid growth and shade, effectually smother all 
weeds, thus serving as a cleansing crop. 

There is another plant which rubber planters might well look into, 
and that is the velvet bean — the HTucitna pnivicns (var. iitilis). This plant 
comes originally, I think, from Tampa, Florida, and no doubt the Florida 
experiment station could tell all about it. It is said to have even a 
more luxurious growth than the cow pea, and produces a great amount 
of vine, and a large yield of seeds. It covers the ground with so heavy 
a vine that it is reported to have killed temporarily even the cocoa and 
Johnson grasses. 

When one is in a foreign country, and almost ready to start for 
home, and a bit homesick at that, there comes a moment when all deter- 
rents are brushed aside, and one bolts. I had planned several days 
sightseeing, and a stop oft' on the way, but instead I bolted. I met all 
sorts of nice chaps on the return journey, yet it was a long week that 
elapsed ere I sighted the skyscrapers of New York. Now that I am here, 
I wish somewhat that I had stayed a trifle longer, and I find myself 
yearning again for the open air life, the strange experiences, and the 
glimpses of nature — luxuriant, triumphant. 

Will this wishful attitude draw me back there soon — I wonder ! 



A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTA- 
TIONS IN NICARAGUA 



A VISIT TO RUBBER I'LAXTATK )XS I X XICARAGUA. 

On Board The Sunbeam— December Heat— Meeting a Water Spout- 
Arrival AT Bluefields- Up the Escondido— Morning Glory Vines Among the 
Rubber Trees— Devastation of Castilloa by Heavy Rains— Interesting 
Experiments in Tapping— The Manhattan Plantation— Visits to Other 
Rubber Growers— Diseases of the Castilloa— On a Fruiter to New Orleans. 

WE three, the Importer, the Manufacturer, and the Editor, left 
Port Limon. Costa Rica, at T.30 in the afternoon on a hot, 
tropical December day. The short voyage from Port Limon 
to Bluefields, something like one hundred and fifty miles, was to be 
taken on a small, fifty-two-ton schooner owned by Belanger's, Incorpor- 
ated, of Nicaragua, and used in trading u]) and down the coast. The 




W n \kF AT 1!KI,.\.\L.EK >. 

schooner was equipped with a gasoline auxiliary which took up most of 
the room aft, and made the rest of it so thick with gasoline fumes that 
it was difficult to stay in the cabin ten minutes at a time, so we lived 
on deck. The vessel was called the Simbcaiu and was manned by a 
mixed crew of negroes from the Fortune Islands. San Bias Indians, 
and one Englishman, and was commanded by a Cayman Islander. 

Starting out against a head wind, our gasoline "kicker"" put us 
along at the rate of about four miles an hour, and we sat scorching on 
deck until finally the sun set and we turned in, still on deck, sleeping 

167 



i68 



A J 'I Sir TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



in our clothes, on a pile of old sails in the stern of the l^oat. The bed 
was far from comfortable for one at all finical about the soft side of 
a plank, and the Importer did not take to it a bit. He had chosen a 
place next to the bulwarks, and had only one ring bolt in the small of 
his back, while the Manufacturer was curled in the form of an S around 
a huge cleat, and a part of the steering gear. How^ever, morning came 
at last, and the little boat kicked along through a blazing sun at first, 
until it finally clouded up, and later, about three miles to the northeast, 
a huge waterspout was sighted. M^e were all so dull and drowsy that 
we didn't pay much attention to it at first, but when it drew nearer and 
nearer, and the captain furled all sail and made everything fast, we 




WATER FRONT AT ULUEFIELU 



thought it might be possible that w'e were going to have some fun. It 
was the first time I had ever seen anything but pictured waterspouts, 
and I had always been a bit skeptical about them ; Init as it got within 
a few hundred feet of us, I was a most thorough convert. It was really 
a most remarkable sight. The sea was quite smooth, except where the 
end of the great funnel touched the water, and there it was broken up 
into curious little wavelets. The huge circular tube of vapor did not 
go straight up, but slanted ofif into an especially black cloud and 
appeared to l)e a mile and a half in length. \Vhen it was near enough, 
the captain liegan shooting in its direction with an old-fashioned Colt's 
revolver, and the Manufacturer, getting his gun, took a hand in the 
same game. Whether the concussion did the work or not, I don't know, 
but before it reached us it suddenly dissolved, and in a very few seconds 
no trace of it was to be seen. 



IN MC.U^JCL'A 



169 



After thai w c' had ii<i fiirthcT excitement except the catching- of a 
big- kingfish, which hel])e(l out our table immensely. 'Jhat night we slept 
again on deck, and went through several showers, sailing into lllue- 
fields about nine the following- morning, where the doctor passed us as 
"healthy, but ugl.\."" Then we went up against the custom house officials 
at the blulT. who lingen'd our behjngings for anything contraband, 
seeming to take ])arlicular delight in running grimy fingers over our 
toothbrushes, and to have a deep anxiety to unroll camera films, and so 
on. We got rid of them at last, and l)oarding a fiat-bottomed stern- 
wheeler, were taken across the broad expanse of Hluefields Bay, and 
landed at Belanger's wharf, from which we went at once up to La Trop- 




LA TROPICAL HOTEL, BLUEFIELDS. 



ical Hotel for a bath and breakfast. There was but one bathroom, and 
that was situated over the kitchen, whicb was proved by the sign on 
the wall: "Don't slop water on the floor; range just below. Gives food 
a soap\- fiavor." 

After breakfast we went out and looked over the little citv of 
frame houses, so radically different fron-i most Central American towns, 
both in its architecture and in the fact that it is built on a side hill where 
there is a certain amount of drainage. \\'e didn't tarrv long in Blue- 
fields, however, for our flat-bottomed boat, Xaf. Jr.. a sternw^heel 
freighter was waiting, and with our luggage aljoard we soon started 



170 



A 11 SIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



up through the wonderful system of lagoons and waterways that were 
to be our pathway to the rubber plantations. 

These comprise the Bluefields River, the Escondido ("Hidden 
Waters'") River, and a great variety of deep lagoons and waterways, inter' 
mingling in inextricable confusion, shut in by walls of tropical foliage — 
an expanse of natural passages so great that a navy might easily be hidden 
there without the remotest chance of detection. Indeed, in the old days 
of the Imccaneers, these lagoons were favorite retreats, and if closely 
pursued a vessel could slip into one of them, tie a few branches to her 
topmasts, and defy discovery. 




WALDRON S STORE — CUKRA AND CANADA 
PLANTATIONS. 



The ride up through the Escondido was simply entrancing. There 
was scarcely a ripple on the water ; the foliage of palms, palmettos, man- 
groves, and wild Ijananas, interspersed with patches of pampas grass, 
the stalks of which were twenty and thirty feet high,' bound together 
with vines and spangled with flowers ; the huge flocks of blue and white 
cranes and the basking alligators — all made a panorama so wild in its 
tropical beauty that it added new fascinations every moment. 

iMuallv, late in the afternoon, we turned into Sloophouse creek, 
and a little later were moored at the pier belonging to the Cukra 



^Y N/c.iix'.u;r.i 



171 



])l;mtati()n. Ilcrc wc <lisc'iiil)arkc-(l, and lea\'in<4- our luj^'s^ai^e to be 
brought up later, followed a narrow-j^auge banana railway up over a 
little hill through a part of the lifteen-hundred-acre banana i)lantation 
of the Cukra Company, and were soon at the house of Mr. ( iordon W'al- 
(Iron, one of the owners, where we had a bountiful supper and a most 
interesting- chat, chiefly on rubber, .\fter su])per. in the bright moon- 
light, we boarded a flat car drawn by a diminutive engine and rode three 
miles into the country to the road that led to the Manhattan planta- 
tion. Idiere saddle horses and a wagon were awaiting us. and as ii had 
suddenly clouded up and begun to rain, the Importer and I got on the 
top of the baggage, preferring to trust ourselves to a wagon rather than 
a horseback ride through the pitch\ darkness. The road was far from 
smooth, and we got ample exercise before reaching the plantation house. 



y 


p^%^s-^-ii 


J 




t*^ 


:.■% 


^ 


m 


9ii 


i 






.'■;:-m| 


B^' /' 


1 


m^ 


■■■■'Tt.,*, 


>jff-> 


_. 




■i 



W.\LE)RON S CANADA PLANTATION. 



We did reach it finally, at 11.30, and turning in under mosquito nets, 
slept like tops. 

x\t daybreak the whole crowd roused out, and going to the door 
we found that we were right in the middle of planted rubber. It was 
on all sides of us, even in the vard. The average age of the trees was about 
three years and they all looked stocky and thrifty. The soil seemed to be a 
red, loamy clay, cpiite porous, with considerable volcanic rock through it. 
and the country rolling rather than fiat. The soil was excedinglv deep, 
as was attested bv several wells that had l)een sunk, the deepest being 
fortv feet, which had not got through that formation. 

That the trees bled very freely. I was able to prove before break- 
fast, as I walked around and ran my knife into the spongy bark. A little 



172 



A J^ISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



later, when we started out on our tour of inspection, the Importer, who 
would not ride horseback, was fitted out with a sort of buckboard, 
drawn by a mule and driven by a Southern darkey known as Jake. 
The rest of us rode horses. 

Almost the first thing that struck me about the planting problem 
down there was the remarkable prevalence of the morning glory vine. 
Just as soon as the land is cleared and planted it takes possession, and 
if it were not cut down constantly around the young rubber trees, it 
would most effectually smother them. When the trees get a good start, 
the vine suddenly dies out and the grass comes in. My belief had always 
been that for grass to get into rubber was fatal to the growth and pro- 




KESUiEXCE OF SIM IRON. 



ductiveness of the tree. I saw acres down there, however, with the 
grass growing among the three-year-old trees, and they were apparently 
as healthy and thrifty as they could possibly be. A little later the shade 
of the tree seems to discourage the growth of the grass, and in one 
planting, where the trees were l^etween four and five years old, the 
grass had practically disappeared. 

The refusal of the Castilloo to put up with too much water was 
emphasized bv the fact that a section of land, containing perhaps ten 
acres, on the Manhattan plantation, where during the heavy rains the 
water had not drained away quickly enough, most of the trees had died. 



IN NICARAGUA 



1/3 



Speaking i>t the rain in this section, the local report is that there are 
ahout two hundred and fifty inches a year. I don't know that that is the 
result of actual measurement, but while we were there it certainly rained 
about as easily as it does in any part of the world. During a forenoon's 
ride we would often go through three or four showers, not heavy ones, 
but the gentlest sort of refreshing spring rain, 'i'he elevation of the 
bunch of plantations that we were visiting is about two hundrecl and 




SIM IRON S RUBBER PL.\XT.\TIOX. 



fifty feet above sea level, and as a rule, the soil was very rich and very 
well drained. 

One of the first plantations that we visited was owned by a genial 
old gentleman from A'irginia by the name of Sim Iron. He runs his 
place himself and has about seventeen thousand trees between three and 
four vears old. His ranch houses were more picturesque than those of 
the Manhattan, in that they were palm thatched and built largely in the 
native fashion. During a part of the year the old gentleman has his wife 



1/4 



A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



on the place with him, and thev seem as happy and heahhy as if they 
were running a farm in a northern chme. 

After looking over the Sim Iron plantation, we visited Daytonia. 
now the Rubber Grove plantation, where there were some very good 
trees, although it was explained that the man who started the planatation 
sold something like two hundred thousand dollars of stock, and spent 




IN rni-: shake ov a rui'.1!Er tkkk. 
[Named from right to left: Sim Iron, S. W. Sinclair, J. A. Belanger, 
diaries H. Arnold, Arthur F. Townsend, The Cook, Henry C. Pearson.] 



only thirty thousand dollars in planting. He was later prosecuted for 
fraud and was sent to jail in some one of the United States. The planta- 
tion was then taken over by a local company, who are getting it into 
good shape. 

After leaving Davtonia. wc visited some small jirivate iilantati(^n<;. 



IN NICARACIW 



175 



all of Ciislil/oa, which Inokcd cxcelk'nllv. Then we returned t(j the 
Manhattan House for noun Ijreakfast. and in the afternoon walked 
across lots to look at the ruhber on the (ukra ])lantation. Just as we 
^ot there our first real shower came down. That was not anv spring 
rain; it was more like a cIoudl)urst, and kept tis ])enned in the house 
for nearly an hour. It cleared oil, however, as suddenly as it came on, 
aufl then we began to examine the interesting experiments that' were 
being carried on b\- Mr. W'aldron. 

He had alreaily begun tapping some of his six-year-old trees, and 
close to the house where we had taken refuge from the shower was 
his coagulating and dr\ing house. In this house were galvanized iron 




MAXHATTAX PLA, X lATlOX. 



iWELi.lXl, HOUSE. 



cans holding half a barrel, each filled with hifrx mixed with water and 
formaldehyde, while from the ceiling hung long strips of rubber being 
air dried. Mr. Waklron used the formaldehyde to keep the latex from 
coagulating too soon, and he washed out the vegetable acids and the 
albumen by diluting the later and creaming it. He found some dififi- 
cultv in coagulating, and had, therefore, fitted up a couple of caldrons 
close to the house, and was boiling the latex. The rubber appeared to 
be verv clean, liut a little short. Indeed, Mr. Waldron acknowdedged 
that he thought it was coalesced instead of coagulated. 

From the coa^ulatino- house we walked down throuiih the rubber 



176 



A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 





JN NICARAGUA 



177 



orchard to tlu" trees that were tlicn hciiio- tapped. This work was done 
very carefullv and in the most cleanly way, the latex being caught in 
tin cups of which there were three rows of four cups each, making 
twelve cups to the tree. After the milk had stopped flowing and the cups 
had been emptied, a native was sent around with a spoon to take off the 
thick creamlike exudation that gathered in the cuts. As this was taken 
off before coagulation, it went into solution with the rest of the latex 
without anv trouble. Mr. Waldron was getting three ounces of dry 




MOSQUITO INDIANS. 



ru1:)ber from each tree and was planning to tap them a number of tniies 
during the year. He talked of tapping by team work through the whole 
of the dry season, and during the wet season to skip only a couple of 
weeks during the torrential rains. 

We tried the Ceylon tool, but it didn't seem any better than the 
ordinary knife for this work. The general manager of Cukra. although 
very much of an iconoclast, and not in the habit of following other 
people's lead, acknowledged that much of his tapping and coagulating 



178 



A J'ISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



was only experimental, and that he expected hefore long to work down 
to a simpler and more practical system. At the same time, he claimed, 
that cumbersome as his present process was, it 
pro\-ed most thoroughly the profitableness of . 
rubber planting. 

During the rest of our stay on this group of 
plantations, we made our headquarters at Man- 
hattan, riding out in various directions and ex- 
amining the rubber, and discussing it with vari- 
ous planters, who were much interested in mak- 
ing a success of it. There are in the vicinity, at a 
conservative estimate, about four hundred thous- 
and cultivated Casfilloa trees, the largest single 
plantation being the Canada plantation, of which 
Mr. Waldron is manager and chief owner. This 
plantation has about two hundred thousand trees; 
next to that comes the Manhattan, with about 
one hundred and fortv thousand. This group of 
]^lantations lies in the form of an eclipse, about 
fi\e miles long and two miles broad. 

.\fter having visited the typical plantations, 
collected samples, and secured all the infor- 
mation possible, the whole crowd saw us down 
to the Cukra pier, where we again embarked on 
the :V(7/. ./;-., and started down the river on our 
wav back to Bluefields. 

We reached this Americanized city early in 
the evening, and found that a fruiter was starting 
for Xew ( )rleans the next morning, and that the 
governor had promised to hold it for us, so that 
we could not miss it. In the meantime, our 
friends began to make it easy for us to leave the 
country. One of the first things to be done in 
leaving Nicaragua is to secure a passport, for 
which one pays a dollar. Mine described me as 
being about thirty-five years old and having red 
hair, but so long as it sufficed to let me out of the 
countr\- I didn't care, particularly as the descri])- 
tion of the Imi)orter and the Manufacturer were even less flattering. 
I have already mentioned that the custom house at P.luefields is 



JBjn, 



"CASTILLOA STEM 
ATT.-VCKED BY SCALE. 



IN NIC! N. ICC A 



179 



situated at the hlulT, Sdiiie miles trnin the city itself, and it was while 
going over to the fruiter that was to take us to New Orleans, that we 
saw a very curious instance of the peculiar concessions that are held by 
various companies. It seems that a steamer which was not one of the 
elect had come down there for a load of bananas, in other words, it 
didn't belong- to the compan\ having the navigation concessions. It 
was, therefore, not allowed to go up into the rivers or lagoons but, not 
to be l)eaten, the steamer's captain sent up to certain ])lanters who 
promptlv despatched a huge scow load of bananas to the bluff where the 
steamer lay. The government caused the scow to be laid alongside of 
its wharf, and proceeded to discuss the unlawfulness of the proceedings. 
While this discussion was going on, something like a lunidred soldiers 
marched onto the gunwale of the scow, which careened it just enough 




LARVAE OF CASTILLOA BORER. 



to cause the water to flow over the low bulwarks and sink the boat, 
bananas and all. 

I tried to get a photograph of the sinking scow, but was deterred 
by a gentleman who said that I might get in trouble with the customs 
officers, and get my stuff held up if I gave evidence of being too active 
a partisan. This was no idle dream, for I had trouble enough with the 
officials anyhow, although I was not taking anything out of the country 
except what I had brought in, with the exception of a few samples of 
rubber and some Casfilloa twigs that [ was taking home in order to 
discover bv what disease thev were attacked. 

Speaking of diseases of the Casfilloa tree, I noticed in a yard sur- 
rounding one of the plantation houses, that numbers of trees were 



i8o A VISIT TO THE RUBBER PLANTATIONS 

affected by scale, some of them quite badly, the insect appearing to have 
practically destroyed the lactiferous tubes, so that the outer bark pre- 
sented a curious shrunken appearance. This scale, as far as I was able 
to observe, only appeared where neither undergrowth nor weeds were 
in evidence round the foot of the tree. All of the trees thus aiTected were 
uprooted and burned. I brought samples of the stems back to the 
United States, however, and through the courtesy of the experts at the 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven, and the 
Bureau of Entomology at Washington, I was able to identify the dis- 
ease and also to discover simple remedies. The reports of the two ento- 
mologists follow : 

Dear Sir : Your letter with specimens has been referred to me. 
The tree seems to be attacked by two species of scale insects . the large 
brown one is a Lccanium, and the small, glassy, greenish yellow one is 
an Asterolecanmm. We do not have the literature by which I can 
determine them specifically. From a knowledge of similar species 
found in this part of the country. I should expect that a thorough spray- 
ing with kerosene emulsion or whale oil soap would destroy them, though 
of course experience is needed to know just how strong to make the 
mixture. I should try some of these made in the proportion recom- 
mended in published bulletins, and if it did not kill them. I should use 
somewhat stronger mixtures. 

A'ery truly yours, 

W. L. Britton, 
State Entomologist, The Connecticut Agricultural Ex- 
perimental Station, New Haven, Connecticut. 



Dear Sir: The scale insects upon the twigs which you sent repre- 
sent the akee fringed scale (Astcrolccaniinii I'lisfiilaiis), and Leiiaci- 
odiaspis riigosiis (f). This Asfcrolccaiiiinii is very common and very 
injurious in the West Indies. Tt works principally upon akee, oleander, 
fig, and hibiscus. Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy, the government entomologist 
to the West Indies, in pamphlet series No. 7 of the Imperial Department 
of Agriculture for the West Indies, recommends kerosene eiuulsion for 
the control of this insect. His fornuila and method of ])reparati(in is 
as follows: "Kerosene emulsion: Dissolve one-half pound of hard soap 
in one gallon of water; add two gallons of kerosene to the hot liquid, 
and immediatcU- clnirn witli a syringe or force pump until the mixture 
becomes creamy. This is a stock solution. Make u]) to thirty-three 
Sfallons. Use onl\ rain or soft water." 



/.V XK .lh'.li,rA 



i8i 



The kerosene eiinilsion ])rei)aratiun can also be applied for the 
Lccaniodiaspis, of which only a few specimens were found on the twig 

which }Ou sent. 

Yours Iruh', 

F. H. Chitti:.\im:x. 

ActiiiR Chiit, r-urcan of luitoniology, 
Washington. I ). C. 

Another possible enemy to the Caslilloa that the alert planters were 
seeking information about, was a wood borer which attacked the tree 
where tlie self-])runino- branches broke off, and occasionally where the 




STERN OF "NAT, JR. 



bark was cut or wounded. The lanrc of the insect are large grubs, that 
after penetrating the outer bark burrow upwards inside of the cambium, 
and then straight through the wood, completely honeycombing it so 
that the trees break short off when very little wind comes. This does 
not always kill the tree, but it sets it back apprecial)ly. These borers 
appear to be most active during the months of June and July. The 
planters, for a remedy, were using a mixture of tar. kerosene oil, black 
oil and sulphur. This killed the grub if it touched it, but it was very 
difificult to reach it because of the length of the burrow. A suggestion 
for keeping the borers out was to have a gang of men constantly going 



i82 // riSIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 

over the trees and tarring all cuts and the sockets left by the dropping 
off of the temporary branches. This, however, would be very expensive 
and hardly practical. I was able to secure a number of specimens of 
the larvce, and the Bureau of Entomology at Washington decided that 
they belonged to one of the large moths, family Cossidce. Their report 
was that they knew little about the work of this moth, but that the best 
way to kill the borer was to inject a few drops of carbon bisulphide into 
the burrow with an oil can, closing the orifice with a little wax. The 
fumes of the solvent would then penetrate the lower part of the burrow 
and kill the grub. Professor John Barlow, of Kingston, Rhode Island, 
however, reported that instead of a moth it was probably a beetle. He 
suggested the same treatment for the destruction of the grub as the 
Bureau of Entomology at Washington. In this connection, it may be 
well to recall that sometime before this an anonymous writer reported 
that a beetle, the Aconsymits longimanus, was troublesome in Nica- 
ragua just in this way — that is, laying eggs in wounds in bark of the 
Castilloa, which developed into borers and greatly injured the trees. 

The fruiter on which we finally embarked was a Norwegian of 
about seven hundred tons, and carried ten thousand ])unches of bananas. 
As we were the onlv three passengers, we took possession of the bridge, 
and also of the captain's quarters, and lived high in everything excejit 
food. We went out in the face of a norther, and ran into one after another 
during the whole passage. The boat had no refrigerating apparatus, 
and to save the fruit both the fore and after hatches were kept wide 
open, and it was a constant matter of wonderment to me that some of the 
big green seas didn't topple over our bow and swamp us, but they 
didn't, and we sailed on by Cape Gracias a Dios, through squall after 
squall, the temperature all the time in the eighties, and finally, missing 
the delta of the Mississippi by a wide margin, ran almost to Mobile 
before we got our bearings. We finally got right, however, and went 
up the Mississippi and landed in New Orleans just in time to enjoy 
the fireworks with which thev usher in Christmas Dav. 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER 
PLANTING IN COSTA RICA 



A GLIMPSE OF RUIJUI'LR i'LAXTlXG IX CUSTA RICA. 

The First Sight of Costa Rica, the Banana Republic— How the Fruit is 
Shipped by the United Fruit Company— Enterprise of the Native Costa 
Rican— The City of San Jose and It's National Theatre— A Plantation of 
One Hundred Thousand Castilloas— Other Plantations of Lesser Size- 
Watery Latex— Some of the Conditions Necessary to the Success of the 
Castilloa. 

OUR first sight of Costa Rica came at five o'clock one morning, 
when we sighted the low-lying city of Port Limon with its hack- 
ground of far away mountains. It was nearly eight o'clock 
before we made fast to the pier, and even then it took us some time to 
have our luggage weighed and the customs paid. The time came finally, 




wharf at port limon, COSTA RICA. 

however, when we were free to walk down the long pier, through the 
gates, and explore the town. 

Not only is Costa Rica justly called the Banana Repuhlic. but Port 
Limon is a banana town, and we fully appreciated it when we saw the 
train loads of green fruit run out upon the piers, the huge bunches 
dumped upon rubber conveying belts and carried smoothly into the holds 
of the waiting steamships. The town, moreover, had an alert air about 

185 



i86 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 



it that was in no way suggestive of typical Spanish America. It had 
no very pretentions Imildings, with the exception, perhaps, of the office 
building of the United Fruit Co., but it boasted two hotels and the "Gem 
Saloon,'' where all the men congregated, and besides that, almost eyery- 
bodv spoke English. 

At ten o'clock in the morning, the thermometer stood at 90° F., the 
air reeking wnth moisture, and the sky covered with evil looking clouds. 
Nevertheless, the streets were thronged with a most vivacious mixture 
of porters, fruit sellers, soldiers, Jamaica negroes, Chinese, and native 
Costa Ricans. At 10.30 we boarded the train that was to take us to the 
interior, and rode for twenty miles through a flat, swampy country where 




UNITED FRUIT CO. S COMMISSARY, PORT LIMON. 

even the native Costa Rican cannot live, but where the Jamaica negro 
flourishes and waxes fat. At intervals along the railway were little 
huddles of huts built on stilts to keep them out of the black mud, roofed 
with corrugated iron or palm leaves, and full to overflowing with the 
ebony subjects of his Majesty King Edward Nil. 

The heads of the families that called these shanties, homes, were 
ver\- largely laborers on the l)anana plantations of the United Fruit Co., 
and when it is remembered that out of Port Limon come some seven 
million bunches a year, it is easy to appreciate how large a force of men 
is needed to cultivate, cut, and ship this great cro]:). It is claimed that 
there are eleven thousand Jamaica negroes on the plantations near i 'ort 



/.V C0S1\\ RICA 



187 



Linion. I'Or tlic-m the Initivl l-"ruit Co. ])r<»\i(k's hospitals, kecpinj^ out 
two per cent, of thc-ir waives for mecHcal attendance; and yet. in spite 
of black fever, yellow fever, nujsquitocs. and snakes, there is not a great 
amount of sickness anionic these laborers. And if one can judge by the 
appearance of the people, their home life in their little tin-roofed shacks, 
crowded with pickaninnies. mang\ d<jgs. monkeys, and parrots, shows 
a greater lueasure of content than is to lie found in the majority of settle- 
ments more favorabh kjcated. and ])0])ulated b\ those who have a 
thousandfold more to make existence tolerable. 

As the train emerged from the i^almetto swamj^s. it rail through 
some magnihcent banana plantations, the trees growing ranklv from rich 




LOAMXt; BANANAS ON A TRAIX. 



alluvial soil and the bunches of fruit being often five or six feet long, 
and weighing over one hundred pounds each. The railroad, by the way, 
over which we were traveling, was built through the enterprise of that 
well known American, ^Ir. [Minor C. Keith, who was also the creator of 
the great United Fruit Co. 

After a time the road began to ascend and the scenery became more 
and more beautiful. Nearly the whole of the distance up to the city of 
San Jose, the wav lav along the side of a range of mountains, and ran 
parallel with a ra])idlv rushing river, whose white water could be seen 
oftentimes for miles. As we got up into the higher country, the home 
life of the Costa Rican began to be apparent. 



i88 A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 

Everywhere through the broad valleys and up the mountain sides 
could be seen cleared farms, in many cases fine plantation houses and 
great coffee estates. The native Costa Rican is perhaps one of the most 
enterprising and independent of all the Latin Americans. Nearly every 
man owns a patch of land and cultivates it. The better class speak 
English and are very friendly to Americans, welcoming them to their 
country with a manly, prideful air that is extremely taking. 

In the meantime the Ferrocarril Costa Rica was slowly but surely 
getting us up toward San Jose. The English locomotive was having a 
tough time of it with the steep grades, and it seemed every now and then 
as if the pull would be too much and that the heavy train would slip 




TEN MILES OUT OF PORT LIMON. 



back down into the valley. The slow progress, however, gave us every 
opportunity to examine the track with its iron sleepers, to see where 
various great landslides had time after time wiped out the railroad and 
even dammed the swift flowing river; and to enjoy the wonderful semi- 
tropical luxuriance of the giant trees festooned with vines and studded 
with epiphytes: to look down into deep gorges, up the sides of steep 
mountains, and across broad and fertile valleys, so photographed the 
scencrv in one's mind that the snail's pace of the train was not only 
not objected to, but was most welcome. At intervals all the way up were 
to be seen Casfilloa trees, many of which had been tapi)ed in the brutal 
native fashion, which amounts almost to girdling. At about fifteen 



IN COSTA RICA 



189 




IHIKKIPI), S]1()\VIX(; MINOR C. K,-;IT11 S PLACE. 

hunclrcd feet altitude the rul.l)er trees began to appear less frequently, 
and when the aneroid read two thousand feet, they disappeared entirely. 
\fter reachino- an elevation of some five thousand feet, we descended 
a thousand feet, and finallv reached San Jose. The city is situated in 
the midst of a hroad and fertile valley, and is semi-tro])ical rather than 
tropical l)eino- surrounded hv huge fields of sugar cane. corn, and grow- 
incr moc^t of the well known tropical fruits. San Jose itselt is a surprise. 




klVKU SCENE NEAR PORT LmON. 



IQO 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 



With its well-kept streets, its trolley lines, electric lights, fine stores, and 
alert looking inhabitants, it is more like a modern American city than an}-- 
thing else. Although it contains but twenty-four thousand inhabitants, 
it gives one the impression of a city of double that size ; partly, perhaps, 
because the buildings are nearly all two stories only, as the frequent 
earthquakes do not invite the erection of skyscrapers. The single unpleas- 
ant feature is the open sewage, which is said to invite typhoid. Aside 
from that, there is practically no disease, the climate being equable, and the 
people, except on rare occasions when they take too much aguardiente, 
give the military police little trouble. 




MOUNTAIN ROAU NEAR SAN JOSE. 



Almost from the first of our landing in this country we 
heard of the magnificent National Theatre that San Jose pos- 
sessed. The Latin American description of it made it more 
elegant and on a larger scale than anything in New York 
or l^ondon. For this reason, the first view of it was a bit 
of a disappointment. It certainly was beautiful architecturally, and its 
decorations were most elaborate, but it is a question if it would hold more 
than a thousand with comfort. Most of the decorative work was done 
by artists who were brought from Italy, and some six hundred thousand 
dollars gold was spent upcn the ])uilding. In the foyer on the beautiful 
inlaid floor were some of the most gorgeous ruliber mats that I have ever 
seen, in red, white, and blue, with green leaves, yellow trumpets, golden 



IX COST. I RICA 



191 




'aIiA^': 



TYPICAL COSTA RICAX LAND CLEARED FOR PASTURE, WITH 
CASTILLOA LEFT STANDING { ON THE LEFT.) 

harps, etc., and they Iwre the imprint of the well known firm of Pirelli 
& Co., Alilan, Italy. 

The city has larse wholesale honses, chiefiv in the hands of the 




SCE.XE I.\ .-TRLLl 1 .\ >AX JOSE. 



192 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLAXTING 



Germans, and substantial banks, tbe country l)eing on a gold basis, with 
the colon as a unit of value, worth forty-six cents in American money. 
The population of the country is three hundred and forty thousand, 
none of whom are Indians. Spanish is the language in general use. 1nit 
almost everybodA- understands English, and it is a delight to mingle with 
the people, for thev have none of the sullen air so prevalent in certain 
parts of Spanish America. 

During our stav in the country, we put up at the Hotel Imperial, 
where we had comfortaljle rooms and enjoyed an excellent table. As a 
matter of course, we asked many questions about rubber culture. 1)ut 
from the natives or the resident Americans we developed little informa- 




CENTRAL PARK, SAN JOSE. 



tiou. One of the latter explained it by saying that in that country at 
the i^resent time bananas were the whole game, because they gave 
cpiicker results and had behind them the support of the United Fruit 
Co., wdio were perfectly willing that the planters should make a good 
thing out of their fruit. One native explained the lack of intestest in 
rubber planting bv telling us solemnly that rubber seeds planted by man 
would not develop into productive trees. He said that nature's way of 
distributing the seeds was for the birds to eat them in order to get the 
sweet pulp with which they are surrounded, and mingled with their 
droppings, the seed grew into a tree that was a rubber ])roducer. If 
it did not go through this ])rei)aratory process, it amounted to nothing. 



/.V COST. I KICA 



193 



Mlliou-h \vc had \mA cMMiic to Costa Kica particularly to look up 
rubber Humv was .mk- plantation that I was anxi..us to examine, which 
,v-,s .ai.l to contain over one hundred thousand CastUloas, most ot 
which had been inlerplanted with bananas. These trees were three or 
louv vear. obi and planted bv one wh.. ha.l ha-l nnich experience m 
tropical t.Mvstrv throuuhout Central America. The Importer was so 
pleased with the city of San Jose atul so relieved to get out of the heat 
of the lowlands that he decided to stay there, while the Manufacturer 
and the writer took another plun.ue int.. the hot country. We. therefore, 
left him lor a further exploration of the city, and .^ettm- up at day- 
break, boarded the train and retrace.l our steps, slidin- slowly <lownward 




RAILKOAIi ON THE WAY UP TO SAX JOSE. 

for hours, until we reached the lower levels. The journey downward 
was even slower than the climb, as the engineer must be on the lookout 
constantlv for fallino- rocks and for landslides, and I fancy he is also 
particularlv careful not to let the train get away from him. which, with 
the number of cars and the heavv freight carried would seem to be 
a not unlikely happening. We therefore enjoyed afresh the magnihcent 
scenery, an.l' before we got down to the trojncs. the lovely, springlike 

weather. 

Reaching the i)lantation, we were warmly welcomed by the planter 
in charge, who got us horses and took us over the planting. It was the 
dry season and there had been no rain at all for five days, but the ground 



194 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 




NATIVE RUBBER TEN YEARS OLD SURROUNDED BY PLANTED RUBBER AND 
CHOCOLATE. 

was exceedingly soggy and wet, and while the bananas were apparently 
very thrifty, the rubber did not look as well as it should. The leaves, to 
be sure, were shedding, which made the trees look their worst, but the 
few trees that we tapped gave out an exceedingly thin milk, more like 
skimmed milk than cream, containing, for a guess, not over twenty per 
cent, of rubber. It is possible, of course, that at the end of the dry season 
this might thicken up apprecial)ly and be worth extracting, but unless 
that happened, they would hardly ])ay to tap. 




TYl'ICAL LOWLAND TOWN. 



IN C0S7\! KICA 



1V5 



In this CDniK'Otidii. a chat that I luul with Mr. loliii M. Keith, the 
former ])Iaiitiiii;- expert of the L'nited h'ruit (,m.. is a])r i])()S. lie saiil 
frankl\- that in that jjart of C'(»sta i\ica he did nut tliink there was much 
land that was availal)le for Ldsliiloa i^rowin^ ; that it was too wet; and 
that he had discovered that wild Cnstilloeis that i;rew in wet ])laces gave 
so thin a hitrx that the rnhher was not worth j^atheriny;. My friend, 
the ])lanter, had, while I was in Xew Vork, told me of another type 
of ])lantini;- that he had done, 1)\- clearing- wide pathwa\s through the 
forest and j)lantinj;- Castillcas so thickly that they took entire possession 
of the oround. With some little tniuhle we finally located two of these 
])lantin<,;s, and thev settled in nu' mind forever the ])ractical)ilit\- of this 




KUiniEK AND I'.ANAXAS. 



sort of cultivation. The Castilloas had grown like weeds, Imt they 
looked more like fishpoles than rubber trees. Liy cutting out some of 
tliem and giving the sun a chance, no doubt something could be done, 
but unless some such measures were instituted, it would be years before 
the tree trunks would have bark surface enough to do anything at all. '' 
That the trouble with the first planting was not due to the presence 
of the bananas was proved bv a look we had at a small plantation run 
by a German, where the ground was much l)etter drained, and where 
the trees looked stocky and thrifty. W'e were also told that on the 
Northern Railway on some of the uplands, the planters were putting 



196 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANT IX G 



CastiUoa in land that luul fornierl_\- been n.'-ed for Ijananas and were 
getting excellent results. 

All of this leads up to what I think I have before written, that a 
deep, open soil, particularly one that cakes at the surface a little and in 
which there is no chance for standing water, or nothing more than a 
ver_\- brief inundation, is what the CastiUoa calls for. 

The interest in the planting of India-rubber in Costa Rica dates 
back some twelve or fifteen years. As earlv as 1892 it was reported 
that the wild trees near the cities and along the cnast had bcL-n practicalh' 
exhausted, and that what rubber was gathered came from the more 
remote valleys. In that year the amount of rul)ber that came out of the 
countr^• was a trifle over six thousand dollars worth, less than half the 




RUIlliKK AND COL'.NO ALTERNATI N(;, SilOWIXtl METHOD OF CLEAXIXC. 



amount shi])])cd the ])rece(ling year. It w:is about this time that the 
government began to take an interest in the cultivation of rubl)er and 
passed laws against tapping the wild trees, and also ofTered ]M-izes — one 
for eight thousand dollars and another for five thous:uid dillars — for 
the best ])lantations of CastiUoa rubber. TJoth of these prizes were taken 
in 1H94 by !Minor C. Keith, who installed two ])lantations near Port 
Limon. the trees, some twenty-five thousand in mimber, being planted with 
bananas ;in(l about one hundred and fift\- rubber trees to the acre. At 
the time ihc jjrizes were awarded the trees were said to be eight or nine 
years old. When the writer visited Costa Rica, no record of them 
could be found, although they should have been somewhere about twentx" 
years old. and certainly big enonoh to tap. The gossi])s of the countr\- 



IN COSTA KICA 



197 



appear to believe thai sn nuich Mn.ekcr i,r.>tU ean.e to llu' planter ihrou-b 
],ananas that the nihhvr plantations were sacrihce.l to that nidustry. 

l.-nnu 1900 onward, (puto a nunihrr of companies were nicorpurate.l 
f.,, uu. planting- of Casluha. A planter named VA. Coles furnished m 
,.^o> a l.M nf eleven planters who had pnt n, rnhher. all the way from 
ten to one hnndred acre^. Some of these plantations, it they had been 
continued wonld have trees that shouhl be at the present time producers 








1 



^ - I 



iP Kri!n::K fkom wii.d trees 



of rubber. The questioning of either natives or foreigners on the ground 
elicited very little information; about all they seemed to know or care 
about was bananas. From an American planter, however, we learned 
that Alessrs. Hoffenstadt and Gillet, of Banco de la China, have a planta- 
tion, where thev lately tapped six hundred CastiUoas which were six or 
seven vears old, getting a pound of rul)ber from each tree. 

The correspondent also mentioned an American family named Hogan 
who were planting rubber at the mouth of the Tres Amigos River, which 
was the beginning of the Costa Rica Development Co., with headquarters 
at Los \ngeles, California. The officers of this compan> made arrange- 
ments for us to visit their plantation, but that meant a call at Creytown. 
Nicarao-ua to reach the Tres Amigos River, but we found that to be 
impossiiile This companv have twenty-t^ve thousand trees, a little over 
three vears old, and ab.nit fifteen thousand two years old. which from 
the photographs that we secured appear to be in a most excellent con- 

'""in this connecti.m it is interesting to note the activity of Mr. Th. 
F Koschnev, ati old time settler on the San Carlos River, and o,.e wh<. 



198 A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTLXG 

has studied the Castiiloa carefully. While not a botanist in the strictest 
sense of the term, his description of the varities of the Castiiloa is of 
distinct value. He divides the Castiiloa of Costa Rica into four species, 
the white, the black, the red, and the "tunu," the first three being all 
varieties of the Castiiloa clastica. Botanists so far have not followed his 
discrimination carefully, and it is a question if rubber planters have made 
any distinction, nor has it been proved necessary. Of course, it would 
not pay planters to raise "tunu"' gum instead of Panama rubber, but so 
far as we know, no such ])lanting has ever been done in Costa Rica, or, 
indeed, anvwhere else. 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA 
RUBBER IN PANAMA 



FIRST LETTER. 

pmvv Sf x^ox-Fortune Islaxd-Colox-Along the Pan- 
To Panama -^ -''- /^ "^^tv i hT ^lmiraxte-Tobooa Islan.-Queer Fish- 
.MA Cana.-Pan^-. Cm-lHE A^^ ^^^^^^.^ Fears-Aumost 

Sleeping in the Rain-Jhe Wuebro ..p,,,^.,^^" Comk^ Aboari)-Ash..ke 

Wreckei-In the Lee of (.lUEKXAnoR- 1 he P.hneek Lome 

AT Last. 

T T wa. .k-n.lodlv against .ny l.c.ta- jn.lKnu.u thai I l..un.i myself 
1 ,.„ ,.,„„■■ for- Central Anu.riea in May, .ne t„ reac the .n,.,n, 
Repnl.He of Panan,a during the rainy season, and ^he the 
velUnv fever mis>ht be too easy of acquisition. Nevertheless, ther I 
V a assen<,er on the Allh„a, with .wo fellow adventurers, wlnle 
Uii,: '"s waiting our arrna. in Pananta City. The explonng party 
„ , . o four J,e -Prospector," a well known nnning engnteer the 
■S out,- then in Panama, getting together supphes, engagnrg gu.des 
and chartering a schooner; the -Commodore.- and the wr.ter. ^ > 
II w!s the :xanunat,on of sonK- eight hundred square mdes of wd.l 
lands privatclv owned and long forgotten. 

The vovage to Colon was uneventful, hu, enioyal.le. although 

vvew warmer' each dav. and side awnmgs and wmd scoops tol.l of 

as; reantess to the tropics. In due tin,e llird Island Roe was 

.iohted where is a lighthouse, flagstaff, and tlnrtcen cocanut p., nts 

: to'si^n of life on the <laz.zling white beaches. Later can,e -ortune 

a K and stopping far off shore, the one white «sident came o ... 
a iollv boat rowed bv a half dozen husky negroes, and S.ot Ins na L 
\l h u.h the sea was as smooth as glass, of a wonderful, mdescr.baWe 
W Hm^ the little cluster of houses in the distance. „, a sett.ng of 
:-e 1 pahns w.th foregroun.l of snowwhite beaches, was .,nos 
dutiful. Jhe heat was killing, an.l we were glad w en the steamer en 
, all behind. Later the light on Cape -,, Cu ,a. «--,;-; 
then came the boisterous and lonely Caribbean ^ecl. neaxN 
^™s w re soon frequent, and the heat during the <ia>; was nt.ense 
ilt the nights, as the n,„on was full, were glorious. Fn,ally. on the 
V of^lav. at eleven in the morning, we sighted the rugged coas 
!:, CoLbia, shadowed by n.asses of deep clou.l. and not long after we 

"■"■^'i;ho:^:-soon transferred to the train that crosses t'-_Is,,mn,s we 
had a chance to see the building where twenty-tour I n.ted States 



202 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



marines stood off four hundred Colombian regulars ; to take in the 
negro huts that cluster about the town in every swampy spot ; and to 
size up the small, scraggy horses, the parrots, monkeys, and a good per- 
centage of Colon's two thousand inhabitants. 

The afternoon train scheduled to leave at 2.45 gets aw^ay promptly 
at 3.30. Almost at once the journey is made interesting by the relics 
of the French canal diggers, and such relics ! Trains of abandoned 
cars, overgrown with vines, trees, and lusty weeds ; mountains of cor- 
roding iron pipe, hundreds of tons of rusty rails, donkey engines, loco- 
motives, dredges — all crumbling, rotting, sinking ant of sight in the 




IN THE CANAL ZONE — RIVER VIEW. 



slime, or covered h\ the rank swamp growths, b'urther on were huge 
warehouses, said to be full of expensive machiner\-, and then the 
chateaus of the French engineers, once trig and neat, nou tawdrA-. deso- 
late, deserted. We saw the Chagres River, and \er\ harmless and 
muddy it looked; oliserved Monkey Hill Cemetery, and wnndered why 
the French engineers elected to live in a swamp an.d bc^ buried on a hill; 
admired the fine work done in excavating the Cule])ra cut; took imte of 
the t\-])es of jungle growth, and at six in tlie evening arri\-ed at the 
city of Panama. We were met by the Scout, and at once taken to the 
Hotel Grand Central. 



/.v r.ix.iM.i 203 

llcrc was a deadly, sticky. <i])])rc'ssivi.' licat, with not a l)realli of 
air stirrint;'. The hare hcdroonis were like ovens, and even the conj 
of mos(juit() netting- that hutif^ over the bed was to the ima<i[inaton as 
stiflinf^ as a blanket. It was too hot to think of sleep, so we wandered 
about the city, interested, amused, and disgusted — interested bv the 
quaint and ancient architecture, amused by the ])olice custom of blowing- 
whistles in concert when the clocks struck the lujur. and disgusted b\- 
the smells that man\- side streets developed. 

The next morning- after cottee we went down to the water front, 
where. l\in,i;- hi^h and dry on the beach, as the tide was out. was the 
. liiiiiraulc, the si.\t\-ton schooner that was to take us to our destina- 
tion. The crew of five nes^roes, headed b\- the mate, was slowlv s^etting 
our outfit aboard, and at the same time chat^ino- the crews of nearbv 
hoL; schooners that were unloadin<^- b\- pushinp^ their squealing freight 
into the water to swim ashore as liest it could. 

I'Vom here we went to Don Pal^lo's offices to discuss food, medi- 
cines, hammocks, ammunition, clothing, etc., until it was time for noon 
breakfast and the regulation siesta. Just a word about Don I'ablo. 
( )ne of the wealthy and progressive merchants of the new republic, he 
not onl\- treated us with everv consideration, and purchased most of 
our supplies, but it was due to his alert helpfulness that we were not 
tied up in that torrid city for a week or more, instead of getting away 
in three days. lUit to return to our story. The breakfast was not a 
success from an epicurean standpoint, nor was the siesta, for it was 
too hot to sleep. So, assembling in the foyer, we watched the vlrowsy 
darkeys on the curbs opposite, and waited for the midday heat to pass. 
After a time I was courageous enough to look at the thermometer and 
it registered ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit, the air fairh' reeking with 
humidity. Along in the afternoon I wrote some letters, but could get 
no stamps, as the government had interdicted their sale at hotels, 
because the tourists had been in the habit of l)u\ing them for curios, 
instead of attaching them to letters as they should; at least that is what 
the clerk said. 

Finally, on the afternoon of the thirtl dav in Panama, all was read\-. 
The Ahuirantc lay about a mile from shore. There is a twenty-foot 
tide, so it is said, and the row to the schooner gave us a view of manv 
cattle and hog boats, and a good idea of the water front of the quaint 
citv that stands at the Pacific entrance of the canal. I have said that 
the crew consisted of five, but neglected to mention the crew's cook. 
Jungo, and also our own. Raphael. I had also forgotten the dozen live 



204 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLO A RUBBER 



hens that were tied two and two, and wandered over the deck at will, 
as well as Domingo, the leanest, dirtiest, tiniest tramp kitten that any 
country ever saw. 

Don Pahlo and Don Ramon, another friend, came out and saw us 
off, and by seven o'clock we were sailing out of the harbor, headed for 
Toboga Island, for ballast and fresh water. All trace of the deadly 
heat ashore was gone, and the effects, a slight fever that all experienced, 
(|uickly disappeared. \Mien darkness came, we slept on deck under the 
stars, wrapped in blankets, and awoke in the morning to find the boat 
at anchor just off the little town of Toboga. It was raining gentlv, Imt 




CATllEIIRAL SOTAKE AND HOTEL (,KAX1J (EXTKAL, PANAMA t'lTV. 



no one cared, and after coffee we went ashore to buv eggs, pineapples, 
and bananas, and incidentally to get a shore breakfast. This was served 
in a neat room by pretty Indian girls, and was the best meal we had 
eaten for a week. 

The town has aliout one hundred dwellings of bamboo, plastered' 
with cow dung, and a small church. It is nestled at the foot of a high 
ridge, cultivated almost to the top, while about the houses cluster cocoa- 
nut palms, pawpaw and chicle trees. It is a very healthy place, as the 
water is good and there are no mosc[uitoes. Late in the afternoon we 
got away, but as the wind was light, we did little but drift. Then it 



IN PANAMA 



205 



was thai \vc bewail to speculate- uixMi the !uiiiil)ci- <.t days it would take 
tJ reach our destination, and to recall the tact tliat in these same waters 
Cortez once lay becalmed t"..r seventy days. an<l at this season of the 

year. too. 

The next nK.rnin- we were still in sight of Toboga. and spent much 
of the dav in ritle an<l revolver practice, the oulls on bits of driftwood 
niakino- excellent targets. There was also the chance to size up lil 
Capitan, a nervous, wiry, native Panamanian, and to discover the very 
primitive ideas of cleanliness that our cook was possessed of. For 
example, his plan for cleansing the tin coffee cups was to pour one 




PART OF THE PANAMANIAN ARMY. 

lialf full of water, rinse it around, pour the same water into another, 
and so on until all were thus washed. He also had a barrel of "biltong" 
or pickled beef for the crew, that was washed each day and hung on a 
line to dry. It certainly was strong meat, and the smell of it att came 
near making us all vegetarians. Slowly the boat drew on. the passengers 
killing time as best they could, till finally Punta Malo came in sight. It 
was a"t this time that our first use for the medicine chest occurred. The 
Commodore rolled his sleeves high to the tropical sun. and in a tew 
hours had a pair of the reddest, sorest arms that were ever seen. They 



2o6 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

gave out heat like base burners, and ached if one pointed at them, so 
they were anointed with cooHng salves, hung in slings, and nearly 
cured by the time he got ashore. 

Thus we sailed and drifted, chiefly the latter, sleeping on deck 
until driven into the little cabin by an unusually heavy shower, usually 
to be driven out again by the heat, the bilge smell, and the ants, of 
which latter we had our own private colony. After a time, we left 
Panama Bay and felt the long swell of the Pacific. Then was sighted 
Punta Moro Puercos (Cape The-Death-of-the-Pig ), and after that came 
a coast— rugged, mountainous, with no harbors, and the mountains 
shadowed by dense clouds, with all the evidences of continuous and heavy 
tropical rainstorms. 

After more drifting came Punta Mariato, which we rounded, and 
turning due north, made for the Gulf of Monti jo, where the schooner 
was to lie while the exploring party was ashore. Even after rounding 
the cape, the wind still continued light, and progress came chiefly from 
the impulse of the Pacific swell. 

In these waters were many sharks, two of which carry a half dozen 
bullets apiece that I pumped into them from a Remington repeater, 
early one morning. Then. too. there was a water snake, Ciilcbra marina, 
about three feet long, that was often in evidence, sometimes as many 
as thirtv being seen in a day. We fished constantly, getting no bites, 
but the crew were more fortunate and speared some fish of a kind new 
to me. One, long and slim, resembling a mackerel, was of a beautiful 
bronze tint, with a spike on its nose, and a back fin running from the 
gills to the tail. Another was short, chunky, of a dingy blue color 
spotted with white polka dots. The natives called the former the 
"durado," but had no name for the latter. 

Our drifting by the point did not last long, as the weather suddenly 
changed and the wind became so squally that the captain put out to sea 
lest he pile his vessel upon the inhospitalile shore. That night I tried to 
sleep in the cabin but it was too disagreeable, so I put on a light rubber 
coat and rubber boots and slept soundly on deck with the rain beating 
in my face. It was so scorching hot in the daytime, that, when drifting, 
a tarpaulin was rigged as a shield under which were swung the ham- 
mocks, making quarters that were fairly comfortable. Some one called 
it the "Touraine,"' because when it was half done it began to rain. 

Soon the schooner was ofif the Ouebro, a part of the territorv said 
to contain a large settlement of outlaws. These fugitives from justice 
had heard of the approach of the Americanos and were rumored to be 



IX PANAMA 



207 



l)rc])arc(l to resist aii\- examination of that ])art of the land. If they 
believed the stories t<'ld tlieni h\- tlie Indians, that tliey were to he- 
enslaved and have nnnil>ers l)randed ninoii their furelieads. one can 
searceh' blame them. 

The 'iljjc'ctive point, however, was farther down the coast, so we 
onlv saw tile mouth of the Ouel)ro River, with frowninjr mountains for 
a l)acki;round. \'erv .Q:lad we were that the Ouebro was not then in our 
itinerarw for that part of the countr_\- was black with thunder clouds, an<l 
drenched with showers that bore a close resemblence to cloudl)ursts. 




THE SCHOONER " ALMIRANTE. 



Coasting along- still further, we descried the mouth of the Mariato 
River, where the first landing was to be made. Here a fresh difficulty 
arose. El Capitan feared the shore and would not go nearer than five 
miles without a pilot. After a lurid conference, in Spanish, Portuguese, 
and English, it was suggested that he circle the nearby island of Cebaco. 
stop at Gubernador Island and borrow a pilot. And so it was decided, 
and the start made just as night fell. 

That night the air was heavy with moisture and had in it all of the 
makings of an electrical storm of great violence, but aside from the 



2o8 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

St. Elmo"s fire that appeared at the masthead, nothing- happened. The 
crew was much exercised about these strange IjaUs of Hght — it was 
Malo with a capital Al to ah of them. No such superstition affected 
our party, however, and when the morning came we laughed awav their 
fears, and as the da_\- advanced they grew ashamed of the terrors of the 
night. By noon the schooner was off Cebaco, which ends in a jagged 
reef where rough water is to be found. As the wind was light and the 
current strong, the Alininiutc was carried quite close to this danger 
point, although both jibs and the fore and mainsail were drawing full. 
the latter two being wing and wing. Just as we passed the reef, with no 
warning at all, came a squall that was as near as possible to ending the 
cruise in disaster. The AUnirautc heeled over until her rail was under, 
and plunged forward like a race horse. El Capitan, at the tiller ropes, 
screeched shrill orders, and the crew worked like demons to get the 
flying jib and the foresail down. In the face of that wind it was no mean 
job. as the sail was as rigid as iron, and it was not until a sailor climbed 
the mast and pulled the hoops down, a few inches at a time, that it was 
lowered. Even then it could not be tied up, but bellied far out into the 
water. The same difficulty was experienced in reefing the mainsail. lUn 
finally, after much labor, the schooner was in hand and driving out to 
sea under jib and reefed mainsail. As the squall had now turned into 
a hurricane that drove the warm spray from the wave tops into one's 
face like hail, it looked as if we were likely to be driven far out of our 
course. El Capitan therefore decided to try to come about and run 
between Cebaco and Gubernador for shelter. Three times he tried and 
each time missed. Then he prepared to jibe. The Auicricaiios, however, 
would not have it, urging that either the rigging would part or the masts 
be carried away by such a measure, and he finally gave it up. Then he 
tried to come about again, and by lowering the jil) for a moment, and 
raising it again, was successful ; the old tub came about and headed for 
the haven. Then followed three hours of as rough sailing as I ever 
expect to see. There was no particular danger, if everything held, but 
the seas that pounded the side and often came aboard were big and 
angry, and the wind fairly shrieked. Nothing happened except the part- 
ing of a stay, and the partial collapse of the cook's galley, and by night- 
fall anchor was dropped close under the shelter of Gubernador, in still 
water, and the weary voyagers went to sleep to the roaring of the breakers 
on the other side of the island. 

Going ashore in the morning, we found that the island was owned 
bv our friend, Don Pablo, and it was here that his pearl fishing schooners 



JX PANAMA 



209 



refittcfl. 'I'lic k'w inliahitanls wtTc Indian, and in looks, lial)its, and 
manner ol' li\int;-. jnsl what onr finds from Mexico all the way clown to 
till' Amazon. 'V\\v\ wrrr friend) \ and brought us pineapples that were 
most delicious, and after much palaver, we secured a pilot. It was while 
walking along the shore from one little settlement to another that the 
.^cout, with whom I was, had an implcasant ex])erience. \\"e were 
under a tree that looked for all the world in l)ark and leaf like a pear 
tree, with a fruit that had the a])i)earance of a small apple. We each 
picked half a dozen and the Scout hit into one, remarking that it tasted 




ON THE r.EACH, GUIiERXADOR ISLAND. 



like a sweet aijple. 1 used mine, however, to pelt the native 
dogs that were following, and then both forgot the e])isode. 
After the return to the schooner, however, while getting under 
way. the Scout was taken suddenly ill, vomiting, retching, 
and complaining that he felt as if he were on hre inside. We gave him 
such simple remedies as w'ere obtainable, but it was hours before the 
attack passed ofif. The natives said later that both tree and fruit, known 
as the bitttr inansaiia, or arsenic apple, are intenseh- poisonous. A horse 



2IO 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



tied under the tree for a few hours becomes ver_\' ill and loses his hair, 
while it is sure death for a man to eat one of the apples. 

With the pilot aboard, we soon gained the gulf again, and ere 
long were off the Palo Seco (the withered tree), where, if luck favored, 
guides and mules were awaiting us. This time our captain ventured 
within three miles of the shore and sure enough saw two men. A boat 
was sent, and in course of time, night having fallen, a light appeared 
dancing over the waves, and soon there stepped aboard the Pioneer, who 




Jl'XCH), t()t)K L)X THK " Ai.M IKA NTE. 



was to furnish guides and transports. He had been waiting nearly a 
week, and would have left the next da\', believing that we had turned 
back or been wrecked by one of the Pacific hurricanes. 

The Pioneer had been in that country for many years and his 
stories of rubber gathering up in the Cauca. and adventures in the Darien 
with the fierce San Bias Indians, were most interesting. As is well 
known, these savages do not allow trespassers u])nn their lands, although 
they do not molest those who gather rubber in the wilds adjaceiat to 



IN PANAMA 



211 



tlu'ir domain. The Pioneer acknowledged that once he broke an agree- 
ment with a chief, stole across the river that marked his boundary, and 
began work on the rich forbidden forest. As a result, his men were 
shot down, one b\ one, until only he and one negro escaped. 

Another time he was caught far up a river, by the dr\- season, and 
had to wait for tlu- rains. When tliey finally came and he got his rubber 
afloat, thev had for i)ro\-ision only rice and bananas, bdoating down the 
river one evening in the bright moonlight. the\- came to a fine stretch 




THE TOUK.MNE CANV.\S SHELTER OX THE .\LMIRAXTE. 



of beach, and he at once ordered the canoe men to make camp there. 
They refused with every evidence of extreme terror, as they said the 
place was haunted. The Pioneer, tired and hungry, forced them to do 
as he ordered, bv threatening them with his revolver. He soon had 
supper and was quickly sound asleep under his mosquito netting. About 
midnight, just as the moon was setting, he was awakened by a strange 
and dreadful crv. Sitting up to call the crew, they suddenly threw 
themselves upon him, held him down, and practically gagging him kept 



212 EXPLORIXG FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

him quiet until tlie screams ceased. Then they whispered that it was 
death to speak aloud and returned to their sleeping places. The next 
morning they explained that the screams came from the spirit of a 
man who was murdered and buried with money on him, and if any 
one had spoken the spirit would haye at once attacked and killed the 
speaker. No whit impressed, the Pioneer searched the river bank, and 
finally found a huge and ancient sloth, which he promptly killed. And 
thus was the uneasy spirit laid, for the cries ceased from that time. 

The rubber trees up there, so he said, were from two to three feet 
in diameter, and most abundant bleeders. They always cut them down 
to secure the rubber, as they get more that Ayay and know that if they 
spared them the next crew of gatherers would destroy them. He said 
that on the land we had come to examine, the rubber gatherers had 
l:)een in the habit of cutting the trees down, but that two years before 
the practice had been stopped, and a premium of twenty-fiye dollars 
paid to any one who informed of such destruction. As the whole tract, 
some five hundred thousand acres, was private property, and wild, and 
as most of the Indians lived on the other side of the mountains, the 
rubber was quite plentiful, and with a very little system, the crop could 
be greatly augmented. 

The next day was undertaken in good earnest the work of gettmg- 
our stores and ourselves safely ashore. And no light task we found 
it. The surf was tremendous and it was impossible, even with the skill- 
ful management, to get to land without being drenched, the men being 
landed in the ship's boat, the stores coming ashore in a dugout. 

While the goods Avere being landed, the Scout and the Prospector 
stripped and took a bath. Later they shuddered when they remembered 
it, for the sharks that haunt that shore, coming far into the shallow 
water, are big and voracious. In the meantime I was looking at the 
forest. Much to my delight I found Cast ill on trees growing within one 
hundred feet of the shore. Small ones to be sure, but thrift^-. One, 
about three inches in diameter, had been tapped, and from the cuts I 
stripped some good strong rubber. 



IN PANAMA 213 



SFXOXD LETTER. 

Cami' Rio Negro — Roughing It — Story of a Bridge — Castilloa Groves — 
Birds, Animals and Reptiles — Cruz, the Hunter — Trips of Exploration — Chi- 
QUiTA, the Commodore, and Mula Grande — Coagulating Rubber With Amole 
Juice — Native Rubber Manufacture — Llanos — Don Ramon and Donna Maria 
— A Treasure Hunt. 

OUR plan at first, on coming ashore on the Azuero Peninsula, had 
l)cen to cani]) right where we landed, but the "heng-hengs"' 
(rodadors) were so troublesome that another spot had been 
chosen, some eight miles inland, and having turned our belongings 
over to the uioaos, we started on the trail for camp Rio Negro. The 
Commodore led. because he had brought his shotgun and planned to 
shoot something for supper. He made a gallant figure, striding along 
the trail in rubber soled shoes, and had deer or turkey appeared, they 
certainly would have dropped. But the game was wary, and the only 
creature that dropped was the hunter himself, when he inadvertently 
trod on a slimy log and sat down in a pool of water. 

The trip took about three hours and led slightly \iphill all of the 
way. The trail was fair, and ran through a sort of open forest, where 
there were many huge trees, but not much of the dense jungle that is 
so often to be found in the tropics. The soil was a gravelly loam, 
with a clav underlay, and seemed to be rich, while the beds of the 
brooks and creeks were of hard gravel and boulders. All along the 
trail were Casfilloas, sometimes singly, and often in clumps. None of 
them \\'ere over twelve inches in diameter, and most of them had been 
tapped. Xow and then was one that had lieen felled a year or two 
before, and frequentlv we saw stumps of what must once have been 
fine, large rubber trees. 

Eight miles is a long distance in the tropics, and though lightly 
clad and walking slowl}-, we were soon very warm, and wet through 
with perspiration. The Pioneer ventured the prediction that this was 
the last long tramp upon which the Commodore would carrv an eight- 
pound gun, and his prophecy came true. Even long journeys end, 
however, and after fording the Palo Seco, and a little later, the Xegro 
River, we emerged into a fine grove of Casfilloas, and fronting it, a palm 
thatched house that was to be our base of operations for many days. 
An hour later the mules arrived with the navv bags, and within fifteen 



214 



EXPLORIXG FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



minutes we were in dry clothing, had hammocks shmg, and were 
ravenously watching the cook prepare supper of jerked venison, hacon, 
dago bread, and coffee. Later he made delicious chocolate, using con- 
densed milk, and serving it in calabashes. Just here — the supper and its 
preparation suggests it — let me say that the little camping stove was 
all right, but three stones between which the fire was built were just 
as good. W'hile a candle box made a fine molding board. So. too, with 
the hip boots of rubber — they kept us dry a couple of times in fording 
creeks, but it was so much easier to slop right through and dry out on 




PANAMANIANS. 



the march that we didn't bother with them after the first day or two. 
It was lucky, however, that there were ample stores of rice and salt, 
for the natives had neglected to clear and plant during the dry season 
just ])receding our visit, and the whole countryside was on the verge 
of starvation. Not that they worried about it particularly ; they simply 
ate what the\- could get. and contentedly waited for the next dr\- season 
to come around. 

Our first night in camp ])art of us slept in haiumocks and part on 



/;V PANAMA 



215 



a platforni of poles, under which ihe /;/".:^'.s- crept wlieii the evenin.L;- rain 
came "11. 'ihe Pioneer kei)t a lantern hurnin,';, as he said it scared away 
the vanii)ire hats. It did not frighten the insects, however, for the morn- 
ing lioht showed four white men well speckled with red spots. Just 
what tJie insect was could not he discovered, hut it was most industrious. 
I counted tifty-seven well defined l)ites hetween knee and ankle, and 
there were otliers. I alsc discovered how to scratch these hites and 
sut^'er no ill effects, and Oh! the joy of such scratching ! The remedy 
was a five per cent, solution of formine api)lied to the surface after an 
orgy of scratching. In two hours after the application, all the poison 
either from hite or finger nails wholly disappeared. It heing Sunday, our 




C.\MP RIO NEGRO. 



iuo::os piouslv refrained from work, but in spite of their scruples, they 
were induced to huild a shelter for themselves, which they finally did, 
getting the roof on just before the afternoon downpour of ram. 

In speaking of the lack of enterprise that the natives show, it must 
not for a moment be imagined that they are behind the times in every- 
thing. In the utilization of public money, for example, they could give 
Tammanv Hall points of value. To cite an instance: The home gov 
ernment 'at Panama City appropriated three thousand dollars tor the 
building of a bridge <wer a river that flowed near a certain town. 
' Shortly after that cme of the holders of the fund approached the Pioneer 
and asked for an estimate as to the cost of putting up the l^ridge. remark- 



2i6 EXPLORIXG FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

ino' that he had two thousand dollars for it. The Pioneer offered to 
do it for that sum. hut the next mornino-, when the papers were to be 
drawn, there remained only fifteen hundred dollars. Then the trustee 
proposed that a seven hundred and fifty dollar iM-id^e be built, and 
that he and the Pioneer divide seven hundred and fifty dollars. It took 
some trading- to arrange that, and Ijefore it was finished there was left 
but six hundred dollars. Then apparently all of the officials got a slice, 
for two days later there was but ten dollars left. Nor has the bridge 
ever beeii built, Ijut there is still an excellent ford, which appears to 
suit the people just as well. Thus it will be seen that they ecjual us in 
the distribution of government appropriations, and outclass us in some 
forms of piety. One of our rulilxM" cutters, for example, bore the name 
of Jesus ]\Iaria Dios — but he did not look the part. 

During the forenoon I looked over the grove of Caslilloas that 
fronted the house, and found that most of them had been tapped that 
season. Indeed, one of our mozos said that they had been tapped twice. 
The process of tapping here is quite different from that pictured by 
most W'ho tell of the gathering of Panama rubber. They usually describe 
a series of zigzag cuts, running one into another from the base of the tree 
far up the trunk. Plere each cut was individual, and made with two 
strokes, one horizontal, and the other slightly downward and joining 
the first so that a small slice of bark was taken out. In the lower part 
of the cut the thick latex gathers and is scraped into a calabash with the 
fingers. The trees, as a rule, were tapped as high as the native could 
reach, and frequently a rustic ladder or a rough staging enal)led the 
gatherers to get higher up on the tree. 

It seems that the plot of trees at Rio Negro were not self sown, 
but were planted by the Indian in his rice field after the crop was gath- 
ered. There were one hiuidred and five trees on about an eighth of an 
acre of land, said to l)e four years old. The rest of the clearing had 
grown up to jungle, l)ut where the rubber trees were it was quite clear 
and the trees big and lusty. Their condition made me wonder if the 
cleaning that is carried on bv u])-to-date planters is after all so nnich of 
a necessit}' as they believe. 

Although it was Sunday, all went in swimming in the swift Kio 
Negro, and all also went fishing (with a stick of dynamite) but only 
got one. The swimming was not prolonged, however, because of the 
rodadors, that were quite troublesome. While in the water a band of 
brown faced monkeys expressed their disapproval of our Sabbath break- 
ing Ijv throwing sticks and branches at us from the tops of the lofty 



IN PANAMA 



217 




2i8 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

trees that hung far over the water. Speaking of the animals, there 
were deer, wild pigs, tapir, tiger cats, and jaguars, hut they were rarely 
seen. Evidences of them were plenty, however. Once when we visited 
the llanos (grass plains), we saw where a jaguar had killed a two-year- 
old colt. For lairds, there were innumerable humming birds, a great 
varietv of song birds, hawks, parrots, buzzards, cranes, grouse, doves, 
two kinds of wild turkeys, and the justly named "fire cracker bird." We 
saw no snakes, but iguanas and lizards were common. 

The Indians think every kind of snake, and even lizards and tree 
frogs, poisonous. Thev have, however, what they assert is a sure cure 
for the bites of poisonous reptiles. After l?,eing bitten, if the sufferer 
will shut his eyes, reach behind, and select three leaves (any kind will 
do), quicklv rub them together, and apply to the bitten part, a cure 
always results. 

Our helpers were in part Indians, descendants of the Aztecs, and 
in part negroes from the Cauca. ( )f the former was Indolencia. whose 
strange, complaining "monkey call" could be heard for miles. He 
always kept it up when alone in the woods, even if only a few hundred 
yards from camp. Of the latter was Cruz, a tall, loose jointed darkey, 
freshlv pitted by smallpox. He was the hunter, and was equipped with 
a muzzle loading "gaspipe" gun with a percussion lock. It was worth 
going miles to see him flush a turkey, locate the tree in which it alighted, 
steal within range, and then snap cap after cap, until finally the gun 
went off and the turkey dropped, oftentimes getting away even then. 

As it would be impossible to examine carefully the whole of the 
eight hundred square miles in the month allotted to it, we first got the 
general lay of the land, then laid out trips through typical sections, 
estimated their areas, and computed the number of trees. From Rio 
Negro camp ( about two hundred and fifty feet above sea level ) trails 
were cut north, south, east, and west. Then came long, hard tramps, 
counting and measuring trees in typical blocks, and nuich questioning of 
native rubber cutters for a fair estimate of the conditions that obtained 
elsewhere. One fact soon impressed itself upon me. The Castilloa was 
certainly better adapted to flourish there than any other of the native 
trees. In spite of the war of extermination that had been previously 
waged against it, it was more abundant than any other single tree. It 
often happened that a group of from forty to fifty could be counted from 
the trail, and it was a rare experience to go twenty-five feet in the lower 
forest without seeing at least one tree. While many of them were lofty, 
few were more than eight or ten inches in diameter. The very largest 



/.v r.ix.iM.i 



219 



tree tliat I saw, far up in a sccKkIccI uKjuntain valley, was not over 
twenty-two inches in <liainrter. 'i"he natives could always ])ick those that 
are the best milkers. As a rule, these trees had a larger leaf area than 
the others, which accounts. 1 think, for the extra flow of latex. Those 
in the dense forest seemed to liear few seeds, while on the edges of the 
trails or in open places they were abundant seed bearers. There seemed 
to be no leaf or bark diseases, and even trees that had been mutilated 
the worst 1)\- tlie rul)l)er gatherers seemed to be sound and health \-. 




INTERIOR OF CAMP KIO NEGRO. 



Exploration was, of course, greatly hindered by the heavy rains 
that came nearly every afternoon, and sometimes in the morning as 
well. These swelled the rivers so that fording was difTficult, and turned 
the steeper trails into muddy torrents. The shacks of Indians who 
were collecting rubber were often visited, and deserted camps alwavs 
examined. A camp usually consisted of a palm thatched leanto, just 
big enough for two men to sleep in, on a narrow pole-covered bench. 



A 



220 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLO A RUBBER 

In one corner was a hole in the ground about two feet deep and eighteen 
inches in diameter, to receive the rubber milk, and in which it was later 
coagulated. Three stones as big as a man's head formed the fireplace, 
with a bunch of dry sticks for fuel; calabashes for gathering, the machete 
for tapping, and the amole vine for coagulating, finish the tale of the 
rubber gatherers' equipment. 

Although camp Rio Negro was headquarters, we were often obliged 
to make other camps for a few days. For example, when examining 
the upper valleys one thousand feet above sea level, a rubber gatherer's 
shack was our home for three days. Two things in particular were noted 
on this trip. The rubber tree rarely grew on the tops of the "hog backs" 
or ridges, but on the sides, and in the valleys. Nor did it grow in 
wet lands at all. Then the seeding of the tree at that altitude was about 
a month later than on lands from fift}^ to three hundred feet above the 
sea. 

There was nnich less game in the upper country, and, Aveary of 
tinned meats, it was not surprising that we tried and enjoyed parrot 
stew, or that the monkeys should have been turned into rabbit stew — 
not big, black, twenty-five-pound monkeys, of which we shot several, 
but the little brown-faced edible monkeys. 

It is not to be supposed that all work was done on foot. Wherever 
it was feasible either horses or mules were used, and l)y following the 
ancient Indian trails we were able to save ourselves much time and toil. 
The horses were small, gentle stallions and quite surefooted. I said 
gentle, and so they were toward all of human kind, but when turned 
out to browse there were some very pretty stallion fights, with no harm 
done, however. The mules were small, but strong, and made much 
trouble because thev knew of the grass plains some miles distant, and 
were in the habit of stealing away at night and making for them. As 
the trails in some places were very steep, I chose a little mule called 
Chiquita, and she proved to be a treasure. She could ford a swift run- 
ning river and keep her feet, while the others were stuml)ling and half 
swimming. I verilv believe she could climb a greased pole or slide down 
a log chute and never miss her footing, if she so elected. The Scout, 
the Pioneer, and the Prospector rode horses, while the Commodore, 
who was a trifle over two Inmdred in weight, took the inula gnvide or 
big mule. 

Speaking of the Commodore's mount, T thought he would have 
trouble, for that particular mule demanded the same treatment that the 
other mules received. I saw him watch me when T leaned forward in 



IN PANAMA 



221 



the saddle and eased C'liiquila nj) a sharp rise I)y twislint;- my fingers 
in her mane. Tlie CUmmodore, however, hy reason of Iiis stoutness, 
couhl not easily do this, and so sat up. The hig mule grew sullen, and 
finalh", as we forded the Mariato, and climhed its steep, clayev jjanks, 
he suddenl}- sto])ped half way up, shook himself and began to tip 
slowly over haekwards. ( )f course the Commodore slid off over his 
tail, and sat in the river, and an instant later was holding the big mule 







INDIAN TAPPING A CASTILLOA. 



in his lap. I ought not to have laughed, nor should I. had not Chiquita 
turned around and winked at me. 

I had long wished to see how^ the Indians coagulated the latex of 
the Casfilloa by the addition of the juice of the amole vine, and now had 
the opportunity, not once, but many times. Usually the coagulation 
is done in a hole in the ground ; if, however, they are very careful, and 
are possessed of an axe. they cut a trough out of a "balsa" log and use 
that. When there is sufficient milk for coagulation, a bunch of vines is 
gathered, folded together, and pounded on a log with a heavy billet 



222 EXPLORJXG FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

of wood until all of the fibers are well bruised. The mass is then rinsed 
in water, the fiuid Ijeing- run through a sieve, and poured into the 
trough. Extreme care is taken not to stir the latex. Instead, as it 
begins at once to coagulate on the top, the rubber is gently pressed 
down, gathering to itself other particles, and at the same time it is 
forced towards one side of the receptacle. Thus by gentl\- manipulating, 
squeezing, and handling, most of the coagulated rubber is finally gath- 
ered into one piece, which is lifted out and kneaded until much of the 
water is out of it. Some more amole water is then poured into the 
remaining liquid, and by the same sort of careful manipulation another 
smaller slab of rubber is secured. The two are then stuck together. 
A week later the milk white mass of rubber will be jet black, of about 
half its first weight, and apparently as dry as a bone. Unless it is cut 
into strips and washed and dried again, and all of the amole liquor got 
rid of. it will sweat and deteriorate, and have a smell that makes it most 
oiTensive. 

The machete is used altogether for tapping by the natives in Cen- 
tral America. Just l\v way of experiment I tried two dift'erent tools 
that I brought with me from Xew York. One was a sort of farrier's 
knife, that did prett}" well, but was not heavy enough; the other was 
the type of tool that is now in general use in Ceylon. While it was 
possil)le to tap with this latter tool, it did not do for the Castilloa as 
well as for the Hei'ea. The strong fiber in the bark, unless the tool be 
as sharp as a razor, makes the incision a tear rather than a clean cut. 
It is possible that the tool may be changed in shape slightly and do the 
work, but in its present shape it is not as good as the machete. Speaking 
of the fiber in the outer bark of the Castilloa. the natives used formerly, 
when thev found a very large tree, to pound the bark until it was loose 
then cut it ofif and dry it, and have a beautiful snow white sleeping 
mat, as soft as wool, and looking for all the world as if it were the 
product of a loom. 

Here I must mention a rubber tapping tool invented bv a native 
Panamanian whom I met, and who is not only a rubber gatherer but a 
thinker. Although so many men have tried to evolve a satisfactory 
tapping device for rubber trees, it is singular that the thought of a 
would-be inventor in this line, almost invariably, turns first to some 
sort of vacuum or suction arrangement, that will not onl\' act as a tapping 
tool, Init pump the h.ite.v out of the tree. Of course, a little study of the 
formation of the lactiferous tubes makes it evident that nothing of this 
sort is feasible. The suggestion, however, has come from a great 



IN PANAMA 



223 



variet} of sources, and in sonic cases from scientific men. So it was 
intereslinj,'- to run across the same mental processes and the same sort 
of dechiction among- the natives of the rul)1)er cf)untries. The illustration 
(page 221 ) shows an instrument designed and made In the native referred 
to. a man named juancho. who is shown in antjther illustration standing 
in a grove of Cast ill oa. The instrument consists of a cylinder of light 
balsa wood, wound with codline. through which runs a i)iston made 
of hard wood, one end tip])ed with a short iron chisel. The chisel end of 
the cvlinder is fitted with a strip of pure rubber, a i)acking to be drawn 
tightly around the tree. The puncture made and the piston withdrawn, 
the hope was that the cylinder would fill with latex. That expectati(jn, 
however, was ])laste(l as only the usual amount of latex followed the cut. 




RUEUF.K CUTTERS AT RIO XECIRC) CAilP. 



Two of the long trips across country brought us out at the llanos. 
or grass plains — prairies containing some 25.000 acres, on which grazed 
some one hundred and fifty head of cattle of the old Spanish strain, but 
big and fat for all of that. They were not at all wild, yet to milk a 
cow it was necessary to muzzle her calf and tie it to her front legs, and 
then she seemed to feel that her offspring was getting the leche that 
really flowed into a calabash. In a little oasis of trees in this prairie 
of rich, short grass, was a neat native house in which lived the keeper 
of the herd and his wife. Thin, almost to emaciation, was Don Ramon, 
gray haired, with the sparse beard of the true Indian, clad in white; 



224 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



he was the only energetic native that I saw on the peninsula. Donna 
Mafia, his spouse, short, fat, and comely, in calico dress and hlouse, 
barefooted, with a man's hat on her head, her own pipe in her mouth, 
surrounded by hens and dogs, cooked in a placid way that was most 
picturesque and restful. We slept at their house one night, but on the 
second visit signalled the schooner and went aboard to sleep, awav from 
the various insects that always infest a cattle ranch. 

It was during a visit to the llanos that we nearly lost the Prospector. 
It came about this way : From the time of the Spaniards the country 
has been known as a gold producer. Indeed, every brook and river 
showed traces of "color," while traditions of lost mines and their fabu- 
lous riches were everywhere rife. As we were not after gold, but 
rubber, the lost mines, or the sunken treasure ship at the mouth of the 



^H 


msmk^.jmmm-' 




m 




d 


1^^^^^ 
^^p^ 


m^ 


•^^B 



COAGULATING RUI'.IIEK IN BALSA LOLI. 



Mariato, troubled us not at all. That is, not until the Miner came across 
the mountains, and rode into our camp with a true Western yell. He 
was a raw boned, good humored, shrewd Irish-American, who had 
been in every mining camp in North America, and who was now devel- 
oping the Gallo (Golden Cock) mine. He and the Prospector got 
together at once and the air was full of "aiidcsitc." "quartz," and "por- 
phory." Then they got to whispering and later parted. It was at the 
llanos that it all came to a head, for it was there that the Prospector 
began furtively to study a small diagram, and later stole awav accom- 



IN PANAMA 



22.=; 



panied bv an Indian whom lir had hypnotized hy the oift of a real. 
They took a bee hne for the sliore, forded the Mariato, and on a little 
island that is half covered by the tide, hunted up a certain tree, strode 
away so many paces by compass, and started to di.i;-. 

It was exciting- to see how eat;erly they plied pick and shovel, 
and how thev started with joy when the pick struck a tree root. And 
they dug- and du- until they suddenly awoke to the fact that they were 
cut off Irom the main land by the tide. Then the ln<lian went all to 
pieces and wept and called u])on the saints, while the L'rospector uttered 
words unfit tor i^ublication. There was no danger unless an alligator 




JCANCHO IN c;KUVE OF CASTILLOA PLANTED LV INDIANS. 

or a jaguar got them, and as there was no boat the best thing would 
have been to\vait for the ebb. Instead of that, they went further mto 
the thicket, and a few minutes later appeared, each with a pole, and 
stepping into the swiftly running water started to cross. \'ery slowly, 
bracing themselves at every step, they waded, the water up to their 
breasts, and finally emerged into the shallows and were ashore. Neither 
of them went l^ack. and thus ended our only treasure hunt. 

The -gusano del monte." or grub fly, was quite in evidence at the 
llanos. I o-ot three, the scout seven, and the rest their share— j"st how 



226 EXPLORIXG FOR CASTILLO A RUBBER 

many I have forgotten. But I have not forgotten the sharp twinge, hke 
a red hot needle, that tells of the presence of the grub in one's flesh, 
or the killing of it with nicotine, the heating of the spot by a firebrand, 
and then the desperate squeeze that shoots the inch-long intruder out 
into the open. 

I also learned here why it was that so many of the natives have 
sore feet, about half of our men l)eing then laid off. A disease which 
they call the "•massamora,"" something like chilblains, attacks them, the 
cause being a minute insect that is found in stagnant water or decaying 
vegetation. Unless cared for, the feet swell dreadfully and the skin 
cracks and festers, making most troublesome sores. 




CRUZ, THE HUNTER, WITH WILD TURKEY. 

One of the worst rains came on while we were at llanos, but all 
were under cover — that is, all except the Prospector and the Scout, who 
came in drenched and cross because the rest were drv and feastine on 
mangos and bananas. While it rained Donna Maria was approached 
with the proposal that she get the Indian woman who lived near to do 
some washing. She got the woman to come over, but as it was a "fiesta" 
(St. Peter's Day), she had religious scruples against working. Nor 
could she work the next day, she explained, as that was the fiesta of 
St. Paul. All of which was solemnly repeated by Elias Ojo. I have 
not mentioned him before, but he deserves it. He was a boy about 
fourteen, liunchl)acked, withered, with enormous black eves, and treated 



IN PAX. I.] /.I 



227 



1)\- all llic natix'cs as a nmsl distin^uislu'd j^ucst. Iiis condition hcint^ due 
to the fact that wlicn lie was xouni;- "a witch looked at him." LookiniL;- 
at him in turn one wondered what result that look had u])on the witch. 

W hat with hea\\- rains that made the trails had and the rivers 
inipassal)le tor a hall da\ at a time, the laziness of the natives, and 
their habit of disai)i)earino to attend far away fiestas, not to speak of the 
wav tile mules liad of hidinj;- in the l)rush when they were most needed, 
we were not s^ettinL; ahead as fast as could he wished. So the 1 'ros- 
pector and the Miner, with Juancho, tlio best wocjdsman on the jienin- 
sula, took the schooner to the Ouebro to arranije for trail cutters, or, 
better still, canoes and men to take us up that unknown river. In tlie 
meantime, the rest of us went on with the work of exploration. .\ few 
days later the Ouebro expedition returned and rejxirted no canoes, no 
men, and no chance of getting- through until the dr\- season, as the rains 
were far worse than where we were. 

It was during- the absence of the ])arty named that the rest of us 
went far up in the mountain valleys where no white man. even in the 
time of the Spaniards, had I)cen, and preemj^ting an old rubl)er cutter's 
shack, we established ourselves in Camj) Iguana. We were able to 
make the journey most of the way on mule back as an ancient Indian 
trail passed close to it. The barometer read one thousand feet elevation, 
but the Casfilloa was just as plentiful as on the lower lands, and indeed, 
here were the largest trees. I found also a species of Ficits that pro- 
dticed a verv good (|ualit\- of rubber, liut was not plentiful enough to 
have commercial value. 

Our partv consisted of the Pioneer, the Scout, the Commodore, the 
writer, three Indians, with one pack mule, besides those we rode. As 
there was no feed the mules were sent back to Rio Negro as soon as they 
were relieved of their burdens. The ride to Tg^uana. although rough in 
places was delightful. 




TU.ANCHO S RUBBER T.\PP1XG TOOL. 



228 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



THIRD LETTER. 

Camp Iguana — Close Quarters— Provisions Low— Lucas Cruz— The Forest 
Primeval — Bees and Rubber — The Natives' Horror of Gold— A Land Without 
Law — Breaking Camp — Mountain Climbing — At Las Minas— The Plantation 
"Las Marghartias"— Fourth of July Fiesta— On Board the Quartos Hermanos 
Panama, Colon, and New York. 

THE ride to Iguana, as I was saying when ni}- last letter came to 
a close, was delightful. Part of the way lay through dense 
forest, where some of the trees measured from ten to twelve 
feet in diameter, then perhaps it was through an abandoned Indian farm, 
grown up to jungle, but still producing mangoes, bananas, and alligator 
pears; by climbing hills that seemed to go straight up in the air, and 
sliding down others that were even straighter ; frightening big iguanas 
and little lizards; stepping gingerly over six-inch-wide columns of leaf 
carrying ants; always on the lookout for wild pigs, deer, or turkeys to 
replenish our larder; we proceeded, the whole journev full of variety 
and incident. The hut at Iguana, with a little repairing, gave us l)arely 
room to stretch out comfortably at night, and had any one man chosen 
to stretch himself diagonally across the pole bed, there would have been 
no room for the rest. The hut was open on three sides, was about nine 
feet wide, seven feet high in front, and five feet in the rear, roofed with 
palm, and had an earth floor. We used our navy bags as hold-alls 
by day and pillows by night, and slept peacefully, except when our 
feet went through the side of the hut. or a leak in the roof let in too much 
water. 

Our first meal there seemed the most delicious I had ever eaten. 
It consisted of canned smoked beef (the edges of the slices were too 
far spoiled to eat, but the middle was good), fried bread sweetened with 
condensed milk, boiled rice, and coflfee. The meat was cooked over an 
open fire and served on big, wild banana leaves. Nor shall I forget 
the first night — the almost deafening chirping of the crickets and tree 
frogs, the (jueer cries of the night birds, the steadv drip of the dew from 
the trees like a slow rain, and the fireflies — how big and beautiful they 
were, and how still the air was, so that the flame of the candle went 
straight up with never a quiver. 

To assist in the exploration of this part of the tract was Lucas Cruz, 
an old ru])ber cutter, the builder of the hut in which we were installed. 



IN PAN AM. I 



229 



IJc luul conic iIrtc from across the nioutitaiiis twenty years l)efore, with 
his father and five lirotliers, and liad taken out ruhl)er e\er since, selling 
it to the traders all the \\a\ from twenty t<i forty cents a ])ound, silver. 
His figures as to the ancient yield of the trees were rather indefinite. 
At ])resent, however, as the trees were smaller than of yore, he ta])|)ed 




NATIVE RUBBER CUTTER WITH MACHETE AND CALABASH. 



about thirty in a day and got six to seven pounds of milk, or from three 
to four pounds of (lr\- rul)ber. His system was to have a helper, one of 
the twain tapping while the other collected the milk in a calabash. 

L'nder his guidance we got out very early in the morning, exam- 
ined the valleys and steep hillsides in various directions, and found the 



230 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RL'BBER 



Castilloa growing everywhere, and many a stift' climl) Lucas gave us 
before the choice growths were reached. Afterward he explained that 
he took us onlv to the easy places, as from some where he went alone, 
we would never have returned alive. Even up here I found stumps of 
huge Castilloas that had been cut down to get all of the milk. The 
largest trees then standing did not measure more than from sixteen 
to eighteen inches in diameter, Init there were many of them, and 
thousands of a lesser size. 

Pressed later for a definite statement as to what he gathered daily 
when ruliber hunting", Lucas said that two years before six of them 
had. in this region, in seven days, gathered four hundred pounds of 
drv rubljer. As thev never work Sundavs, that would mean six davs' 




CATTLE RANCH AT THE LLANOS. 

[Don Ramon in the Foreground.] 



work, that is, unless they loafed three of them, which is probable. For 
an experiment, we sent out four men late one morning, who were liack 
by middav with fifteen and one-quarter pounds of milk that after coag- 
ulation and drying made about eight pounds of rubber. As they nor- 
mally get fifty cents a day, silver, equal to twenty-five cents, gold, that 
was not a bad return. 

It is due to the man who first told how bees collected rubber latex 
as well as the rubber itself, from the cuts in the trees, that he receive 
apologies of all skeptics, for the story is true. I saw hundreds in all 
parts of the peninsula, and they not only love ruliber. Imt almost every- 
thing else, and are a great nuisance in camp. What they do with the 



/.v r.i.wiM.i 



-^3f 



rul)l)(.T. wlu'lluT it |l;(.'Is iiUo C(niil) nr 1iiiih-\, I dd nit know, hut tlicv 
certainl} wdrk most ciierL^cticalK- in ^atlu-rin^- it. 

liy cnttini; ilnwn a few trees on the t(»]) ot' a Iol't\ ridqe near camp. 
a tine view of tlie eonntry was <leveloi)e(h from tlie sonrce of the Mariato 
River to the sea, {he //(iiins, the Stioy I\i\-er. and e\en the far a\\a\- i^vilf. 
It was wonderful how Lucas could ])ick out the Casfllhia miles awav 
from this eyrie, and without ajjparent mistake either. 

After a few da\s at Iguana, we l)ep;an to look anxious] v for the 
return of the mules, for food was getting- scarce, and worse than all, 
the cotTee was nearly gone. Although signs of deer were ])!entiful. the 
hunter could get none, and even ])arrots and monkevs were not in e\i- 




SUGAR MILL NEAR LAS MINAS. 

[On Las [NJargharitas Plantation. 



dence. There was, to lie sure, a land crah that the Indians caught occa- 
sionall}'. It was as big as a saucer, with a bright bhie body, red legs, 
and eyes set on props an inch long. It was as giddv looking as a Chicago 
ritnabout, and ajiparently about as edible. Just as we were tiring of rice 
and weak coil'ee, the Pioneer mixed some boiled rice with condensed 
milk, put it in a small pan on the fire, then laid a piece of tin over the 
pan, and built another fire on that. An hour later we were feasting 
upon as fine a rice pudding as ever was cooked. And at that time the 
pack train appeared, and ere long we were on our way back to Rio 
Negro camp. 



232 



EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 



No incidents of special note occurred on the return trip. The 
trails were so wet from recent rains that the manv humming birds, the 
gorgeous butterflies, and the rich tropical flowers, were hardly noted. 
The swarms of horseflies that swooped down upon our patient beasts 
could not be wholly ignored, however, and soon all became most expert 
in killing them. As usual, a stray, starving dog appeared from nowhere 
and silently attached himself to our party. Although we knew he would 
crawl under our hammocks at night to give his fleas an opportunitv to 
emigrate to richer pastures, he was accepted without protest. He had 
his virtues. Nothing could tempt him to steal, although starving, and 
he would allow a wild pig to cut him to ribbons that the hunter might 
get a shot, and he was after all the friend of man. 

During this ride a strange thing happened : Cruz asked what the 




Tuwx i;akekv at las mixa.s. 



Americanos used the rubber for! It was the first time in the memory 
of the Pioneer that any cholo (civilized Indian) liad ever shown the 
slightest curiosity in that direction. I doubt if he appreciated some of 
the uses described, ])ut the making of waterproof clothing caught his 
fancy at once. For most of the Indians have a little bag made of cloth 
and coated with rubber, mixed with gunpowder, if they can spare it, 
to help the sun cure it. In this, or a purse made of iguana skin, they 
carry flint and steel, a bit of cotton wicking with one end let into a bone 
extinguisher, and tobacco for cigarettes. They are a quiet, anemic 
race, very superstitious, and so fearful of spirits and tigrcs that if 
overtaken by night in the forest, they climb trees, and tying themselves 
to the limbs, remain until mornino-. Thev have a horror of <rold, not 



IN PANAMA 



233 



llic cdin, l)Ul ihc raw material, always (k'liyini;- all knowlcdj^^e of it, the 
l^robablc reason beint;- thai the story of the cruelties of the Spanish gold 
seekers are still in vooue among them. There are, all told, on the eight 
hundred sc|uare miles of the Azuero lands, some four hundred souls. 
On the other side of the mnniitain ranges, however, are large towns, 
and many thousands of natives. 

It took some time to appreciate that this was a land where ])rac- 
ticallv no laws were operative. As the weeks passed and no word came 
from the outer world, and we learned that the few letters despatched 
to the faraway Panamanian postoffice would never reach their destina- 
tion, we began to realize that this w^as indeed a forgotten corner of 
the world. The natives are all good Catholics, and show their religious 




THE CHURCH AT LAS MINAS. 



fervor at many fiestas, by burning candles, exploding gunpowder, and 
getting drunk. In this latter state they show much energy and put 
up some spirited machete fights. If an Americano tries to patch up one 
of the wounded, they ofifer no resistance, but as soon as the good Samari- 
tan departs, they take off the bandages, plaster the wound with cow^ 
dung, and if the victim dies lay his death at the door of the foreigner. 
How well I remember the disgust of the scout w^ho wanted to extract 
a bullet that was just under the skin in the neck of a mozo whom the 
alcade had shot for some misdemeanor. 

"\Miv it's onlv under the skin; it will almost roll out," he exclaimed 
in Spanish. 



234 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

But they wduld nut allow the skin to 1k' cut, although thev did 
prop the sufferer up. heels in the air and head to the ground, and 
watched all night to see the hullet as it rolled out. 

Of the thousands of shell mounds that contain the graves of their 
ancestors, the natives know little, and cheerfully assist the despoiler 
to open them and secure such relics or treasure as they may contain. 

The women are quite pretty when young, particularly those who 
hve in the mountains, and have a custom of filing their teeth so that the 
points are as sharp as needles, said to he most becoming, from an Indian 
point of view. The mountain men who are physically the best Indian 
specimens, wear only a shirt and a pair of pants cut ofif at the knees, 
and are known in the lowlands as the "short pants." 

That night in Rio Negro camp it was really cold. The air was 
damp, and it was raining heavily, although only a little came through 
the roof. We were sitting about too grumpy to talk until the gray 
mule took possession of the kitchen, and, in the mix-up that followed, 
led us to forget our woes. Then the Prospector began to talk about 
rubber plantations, and my conceit got a shock, for he told me of some 
that I had never heard of. It was on Gorgonas Island, which lies off' 
the coast of Colombia, owned by the fine old Spaniard, Don Ramon, 
whom we met in Panama City, where are some five thousand cultivated 
trees four and one-half years old. The Prospector feared that the 
revolutionists from the main land might have destroyed some of them 
in their periodic forays, but was not sure. Then the Pioneer took the 
floor. He had formerly been manager for the Darien Gold Mining Co.. 
and for them he cleared wide paths through the forest in which to plant 
Castilloa trees. The planting was in part from seed, and in part of 
young trees, for which he paid the natives five dollars a hundred, in silver. 
This was in 1900, and there were some three hundred thousand trees 
on land some miles from the coast, planted at an altitude of fifteen 
hundred feet. Since leaving the company, his successor had planted 
certainly as many more. 

The trips that I have outlined are a few of many, long and short, 
that taken as a whole gave me a knowledge of the lands as a whole. 
The final journev was to be along the "hog backs" that extended 
up to the mountains, then over them and down to the further shore, 
whence the Ahnirantc had been despatched to meet and convey us to 
Panama City. 

First came the preparations, the most important of which was the 
packing of the camera supplies. Considering the fact that the mule 



IN PAN AM,} 



235 



tliat ])'ivv lliis precious Idad always tL'll ilnwii when crossing a river, 
and that the searching dampness of the atmosphere had l)een at work 
at the tihns for man\ xweks, it is a wonder that aii}' pictures at all were 
ohtained. Then came tlu' drying of clothinj:^ and a su])pl\- of bread. 
The I'ioneer tried his hand at bread baking- alont;- the lines of his rice 
j)uddino- triumph, but the resulting- solid cakes, scorched on the outside, 
and dous^h within, could not be honestly termed the staff of life. By 
splitting- o|)en and toasting them the\- were edible, and were eaten, all 
but one, which I saved for a paper weight. 

(Jn Sabado (Saturday) morning at 6. 30, we broke camp and 




A,-*. 



^■f^ 



FOURTH OF JLLV FIESTA AT LAS MINAS. 



Started on what our guides claimed would l)e the hardest day's work 
we had ever done, and it was. There was only one river to ford, the 
Mariato, and Chiquita, knowing little beast, kept her feet, while the other 
mules and horses were stumbling, plunging, and threatening to go 
down stream with the swift current. Then began the steadv climb, 
over a trail that was like the bed of a brook, through underbrush that 
tried the pack mules sorely, often stopping them completely until freed 
by the use of the iiiaclicfc. I had an army saddle on Chiquita and a 



236 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLO A RUBBER 

rope bridle about ber nose, but tbe first could not be cincbed tight 
enougb to stay on, and tbe latter was only a matter of form. Pull all 1 
could, she went where she thought tbe trail was best, and in all fairness 
I must say she was usually right. I do think, however, when she 
insisted on crowding so close to a sharp stub pointing down the trail 
that saddle and rider were both ripped off, instead of slipping her hind 
legs out of tbe cinch and continuing on after the rest, she might have 
waited. I certainl}- gave her to understand that I advised the other 
side of the trail, and in response to my vigorous pull ber bead came round 
until it almost touched my knee, but tbe obstinate little body went 
straight on. 

Some of the "hog backs" climbed were of tbe razorback variet}' — 
just a narrow path along tbe spine of lofty ridges, forested on both 
sides, and incredibly steep. The gray mule got in difficulties on one, lost 
his balance, curled up and rolled over and over until stopped by a 
big tree and a tangle of monkey vine. He lay at ease until relieved of 
the pack, then struggled to his feet and climbed back to the path, not 
in the least ruffled. 

It must not be supposed that the trail went up all the time ; on the 
contrary, 'it was a quarter of a mile up, then an eighth of a mile down, 
and we rode sometimes lying flat on the beast's back, at others with feet 
along tbe sides of the mule's neck and leaning as far backward as pos- 
sible. Many a rod did Chiquita slide down clayey steeps, but not a mis- 
step did she make through it all. We lunched by a brook in a deep 
valley where the dense shade made twilight of high noon, and then 
went on, the climbing worse than ever. The first signs of rebellion on 
the part of the beasts of burden came from the inula grandc who bore 
the Commodore. He thought it was time his rider walked a little, and 
while the Commodore paused to reason with him the rest rode on. Very 
soon the way became so steep that all dismounted and walked. While 
catching breath at the top of a particularly stiff bit, we heard the Com- 
modore coming, puffing, panting, profaning. 

"Where is your mule?" I asked. 

"Blank the blankity blank beast, he won't even allow me to lead 
him, let alone ride !" he exclaimed. "Refuses to associate with me, 
blank him !" 

And so it was. Miila grandc appeared a few moments later, baited 
a rod away, and when approached, simply stood stock still. If the 
Commodore swore, be put bis ears forward so as to miss none of it, 
and if he fell to belaboring him with a cudgel, simply began to eat of 



IX f'.lX.IM.l 



237 



the herljcigc with an air of uncoiK-cni that would have tempted many to 
shoot. 

About five o'clock Chepo, the pig ranch, where we must spend the 
night, was reached. We were tired out but happy, for in the memory 
of the oldest inhabitant never had tliat journey been made without 
encountering a heavy rain storm on the top of Montoso (over which 
we came), and we had come through dry. Hammocks were swung in 
a big half ruined ])igshed, a chicken was cooked and eaten, and we turned 




WILD ■•CASTILLOA." SHOWIXC. STUMP OF BIG TREE FROM WHICH SPROUTS 

HAD GROWN. 



in. The aneroid said two thousand nine hundred and fifty feet for 
altitude. It was quite cool, but deliciously dry as compared with Rio 
Negro. 

Up at five the next morning, after a hasty breakfast of Pioneer's bread 
and coffee, the climbing was continued. Here there was less forest and 
the trail was centuries old. In places it was worn down in the red por- 
phory until the sides rose above the rider" head, while at the bottom it 
was bareh- wide enough for the mule to walk. It was also often cut 



238 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

into by a series of from three to five foot steps, with a pool of water in 
the hollow of each, so the difiiculty in getting along may be imagined. 
Finally the top of Cerro Nuncio was reached, three thousand five 
hundred feet in the air, and laid out before us like a map. were the 
plains of the other side of the peninsula. This mountain, so said the 
Miner, was a mass of gold bearing quartz, and a part of the property we 
were examining, but we left it where it was. After a rest we started 
down towards the town of Las Minas which was to be our recuperating 
and repairing station. The descent was far too steep to ride, so we 
climbed down, finally reaching the plains, and a little after noon, we 
rode into the old Indian town. Here, installed in a house owned by 
the Pioneer, we were soon sitting at a table, using knives, forks, and 
napkins, as if we had always been accustomed to them. 

This narrative relates primarily to rubber, and it is hard to forecast 
just how much extraneous matter the reader will stand. But it is only 
fair to the writer to allow him a word concerning a part of the world 
which Christopher Columbus, Duke of Veragua, chose for his own, as 
it was his province, Veragua, that we then were in. Not onlv that, but 
all the Indians of his time were Spanish slaves, and the amount of work 
that they did in digging down mountain sides for gold, is marvelous. 
Las Minas, founded by the descendants of Columbus, has its jjlaza. 
church, tiled houses, dogs, children, and buzzards, like all Central Ameri- 
can towns. It also has several fine CastiUoa trees, and not far away an 
extensive CastiUoa plantation. The latter is known as "Las ]\Iargharitas"' 
and is owend by the alcade of Las Minas. It consists of about twenty 
hectares of land, planted with rubber and cofifee. There are said to be 
some twenty-five thousand Castilloas, that for age would average about 
three years. One tree that was ten years old was sixteen inches in 
diameter, and bled freely, but the latex was waxy, and did not coagulate 
until the wax was worked out. This was not the case with all. and I 
think the difference was individual. 

In our conversation with the Indians we learned all that the\- knew 
of the land just explored. They confessed that they did not like to go 
over there, as they were afraid of getting lost. Thev also boasted of 
the times when their grandfathers crossed the mountains and. filling 
canoes with latex, used them as coagulating vessels, and very hesitat- 
ingly, and only after very much persuasion, they told of the gold some 
brought out and of the "lost mines'" that had once produced such riches 
for the Spaniards before the Indians rose and massacred them. 

Fourth of Julv came while we were in Las Minas, but it would take 



IX r.ix.iM.i 



239 



pages to tell of the fiesta that we .^avc the town, and of the bailc ihey 
gave us in return. At this bailc the alcade played the first violin, and 
was accompanied hy a mandolin, a triangle, and a native drum. All day 
long the whole population was shouting Vwa Indcpcndcncia listados 
Unidos! and we in turn I'ira Indcpcndcncia Panama .'—while Amigos 
Americanos and Amigos /'a/;a— something (jr other— were swapped 
back and forth most fraternally. 

Visiting the old Spanish mine, the Colden Cock, now being devel- 
oped by Americans, we learned from the natives that at times a golden 
cock crows, and then all the dead men killed by a cave-in during the 




INDIAN PACK BEARER. 

Spanish occupation, groan in concert. A golden bull that is somewhere 
inside of the mine also has a habit of roaring when certain calamities 

are due. 

From Las Minas came the journey to Pese, a town of some five 
hundred inhabitants. Here the Pioneer also had a store, and his home, 
where we were entertained most royally. We did not tarry long, how- 
ever, as the Prospector was already suffering from painful tropical 
boils, and it seemed necessary to get where there were physicians. From 
Pese we went to Chitre on horse or mule back— all except the invalid, 
who rode in a bull cart— and finally arrived at Innocentias Hotel. I 



240 EXPLORING FOR CASTILLOA RUBBER 

was about as near a wreck as one could be, for Chiquita on level ground 
developed into the fastest, hardest gaited little trotter that I have ever 
seen. She simply would not canter, and in her trot she kept up with the 
galloping horses and pounded me almost to jelly. 

At Chitre we expected to find the Almirantc, but she was not 
there. After waiting two days we took passage on the Quartos Hcr~ 
manos, the Prospector being brought aboard on a mattress. It must 
not be thought he was the only damaged one, for all of us were some- 
what battered. I had a scalp wound an inch long that I had secured by 
going through a doorway at Innocentias without stooping enough to 
avoid the sharp tiles, the Scout had a cracked rib. because his horse 
jammed him under a leaning tree, and the Commodore had a touch of 
fever. 

The Quartos Hcruiauos got away late, by poling down the narrow, 
muddy Parita River one and one-half miles to the bay. At the river's 
mouth, we met the Almirantc, and, leaving the Commodore to guard 
the luggage, boarded our own boat. It was hard work to get El C a pi tan 
to turn about and follow the other schooner — why. I don't know — but 
it was finally accomplished. But alas, hardly were the schooners a 
quarter of a mile from shore when both were aground. Half an hour 
later one could walk on the hard, black sand from one boat to the other. 
It would be flood tide by midnight, and if there was wind that would 
mean a race for Panama. So I offered our captain ten dollars, silver, 
if he got in first. By eleven our boat was again on even keel : ten 
minutes later she was under way, the breeze freshening every minute. 
It finally got so fresh that I could not sleep on deck but went below. 
With the exception of one hour's calm the wind held all the next dav, 
and at midnight blew us into Panama harbor. But the shrewd old 
Portuguese captain of the Quartos Hermanos beat us an hour h\ getting 
to the windward and then sailing like a streak. 

It was just sunrise as we dropped anchor in the bay opposite the 
Hotel Marina, from which picturesque hostelry many boats put off 
to secure the job of putting us and our belongings ashore. This task 
was accomplished after much haggling, and within an hour we stood 
on the beach surrounded by our luggage, objects of much interest 
to a score of watermen, half as many dogs, and a huge drove of wild 
pigs that had just been unloaded from a small freight schooner. One 
more hour on the beach sufficed to purchase porters and a cart — I sav 
"purchase" advisedly — and start our belongings toward the hotel. 

Once again at the Hotel Grand Central, where were stored most 



IN PANAMA 241 

of our clotlics. wo prcijarod to assiinic the habiliments uf civilization. Tlie 
first thing was to induce the hotel management to open the bathrcjom 
and furnish water. After a forenoon of persuasion that was finally acc(jm- 
plished, and we felt better, even if the hotel employes did not. Then 
followed a visit to the cable office, a second exploration of the city, and 
preparations for passage to Xew ^■ork. on the good ship ]'iicataii, which 
was to sail, and did sail, on the day following. 

In our journeys about the city and along the line of the canal, I 
tried as far as possible to get close to the ])eo])le— that is, in the way of 
mental, not physical contact. Of the native Panamanians I found some 
exceedinglv well educated and active, sane, business men. They were, 
almost without exception, most ])ronounccd in favor of the annexation 
of the young republic by the Tnited States. The mass of the people, 
however, apparentlv wish only to be let alone, and resent the bustling 
ways of the Americans. I should say also that there was an exaggerated 
idea, in their minds, concerning the prowess of the Americans, particu- 
larlv the trim looking marines who walked the streets as if each individ- 
ual could put an army to flight. 

That the canal w^^uld Ix- put through and in less time than is 
generally believed, all of the business men were agreed, and that Ijoth 
Colon and Panama City would one day, under the American engineers, be 
free from yellow fever and as hal)itable and safe as Singapore or Havana 
none doubted, but that either city would be of great commercial import- 
ance once the canal was finished was not predicted. 



EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 



F,XPKKI1-:.\\I':S l.\ COLO.MI'.iA. 

A Race kok Port — The Jduknev to Barranquili.a — IIutel Experiences in 
That City — A Lakce Sum Rxi-enhed for Doubtful Pleasures — The Stay in 
Cartagena — Little Information to i-.e Gained About RunisER — The Meeting 
With Mr. Granger, United States Consular Agent at Quibdo, Colombia — 
His Interesting Summary of the State of the Industry and His Prophecy 
for the Future. 

IT had l)c'cn my fortune a numlicr of limes to ol)servc the pictur- 
es(|uc coast of Colombia from tlie sea, on lioth tlie Atlantic and 
Pacific sides, hut u]) to the time that the j^ood ship Saniia landed 
me at Savanilla I had never set foot on its sacred soil. It was, there- 
fore, with much interest that 1 stood on deck and watched the approach 















VIEW OF i;.\KKANoUlLLA. 



of the vessel to the three hundred-foot iron pier that is about all there 
is of the "Port of Colombia." There was, to be sure, a cluster of huts 
about the litle railway station ; huts that seemed to grow up out of the 
desolate shore much as the cactus and mesquite did, without an\- human 
intervention, but the result rather, of a dry. creative impulse of some 
arid desert god. 

245 



246 



EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 



We had been shouldered and l)uffeted for several days by the 
restless Caribbean, scorched ])}■ the sun and wilted by the heat, and we 
were glad of the prospect of getting ashore. We therefore entered in 
spirit into the feelings of our captain, who was racing with a French 
steamer for a good mooring, and whose Teutonic oaths we piously 
echoed without knowing exactly what they meant. Whether this helped 
in the race is a question, bu,t at all events we got the berth, and as we 
were making fast the captain joined our group. His good nature was 
restored, and as we stood under the awning, not much bigger than a 
pocket handkerchief, sheltered from a shower, he called attention to a 
man standing on the pier who was General Somebody, and a personage 
of great importance. 




HOMES OF THE POOR. 



"You mean the chap in the mackintosh ?" asked an English ship- 
mate. 

''No, the man in the rubber 'goat,' "' growled the captain. 

Both of them stood pat, and the argument lasted long after we 
left them and stepped upon the pier, which was crowded with freight 
cars, natives, sailors, and the nondescript Anglo-Saxons that become 
residents of such places and never get either money or energy enough 
to get away. Did I say that it was Sunday when we landed? Well, 
by the calendar it certainly was the holy Sabbath, but so far as we 
could see, no one observed it but ourselves, which w'e did by rigidly 
abstaining from work, and preparing to journey up to Barranquilla early 
Monday morning. This town, which is some nineteen miles away, is 
connected with the port by a jerkwater railroad that has great difficulty 
in negotiating two tri]is in twenty-four hours. Wc therefore made all 



/:A7V:AV/:.VC7:.V /.V COLOMHIA 



247 



preparatiims, and as I was llic mily mu' wlio knew how to ask f(jr three 
tickets in S])aiiish. I was elected treasurer, and lull of confidence 
a])i)r()ache(l the ticket office with the demand. "Ires holcto Barniiujiiilla." 

After nuich conversation and considerahle si^ii Janj^uai^e. I dis- 
covered that single fare was eii;ht\ -ei^ht dollars, round trip beinij 
seventy-four dollars; so 1 hous^ht round tri])s. thus saving" forty-two 
dollars. The price seemed a little hij?h, hut it ^ave us an added respect 
for a cor]:»oration that could secure such prices. 

Taking- our places in the passenger coach which was about fifteen 
feet long, with exceedingly narrow sides, we were bestowed as com- 
fortably as might be. We three were the onl\- . liiicricaiios, and the 
Colombians, particular! \- those with the store teeth, wdiich seemed to be 
<iuite a fad. smiled at us benignlw We were unable to sit together, and 




MOUTH OF THE SIXU RIVER. 



to one fell the luck of l)eing seated l)y the side of an exceedingly dark- 
complexioned lady with much adipose tissue, who shook with the motion 
of the train so that we feared her calico swathings would give way 
and she would run all over the floor ; while between her and our com- 
panion sat a perfectly naked boy about six years old. I have forgotten 
how the rest of us were bestowed, I was so interested in watching the 
disgusted look on the face of the crowded one. 

When the train was loaded and everything ready, we had the usual 
South American wait of about half an hour, and then finally, after much 
protesting on the part of the fussy little engine, the train dragged 
slowly along the wharf, around by the station, and following the shore 
took its way through most uninteresting countr\- until we reached 



248 



EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 




TAX OKA MIC VIEW OF CARTAGENA. 



Barran(|uilla. This proved to lie quite a city, Spani'^h-American throui^h- 
out, and unspoiled by the tourists. Around the station were two score 
of rickety carriages, to which were attached, by rusty and nondescript 
harnesses, a collection of horses, cadaverous and (lisi)irited in the 




S'-E.\E IN orir.lKI, A KL'liliEK TKADl.Nt, CliNTEK 




FIGURES IN THE MAP RELATE TO THE LOJATIOX OF RUBBER PLAXTATIOXS (MEN- 
TIONED ON ANOTHER PAGE) BELONGING TO THE FOLLOWING: 



I. Juan C. Olier. 
2 ■ Ciceron Angel. 

3- Carlos Niciilas Ferrer 

4- Gonzalo Zuniga. 
5. Melnk & Co. 



6. Delfino Diaz. 

7. Manufl Rios. 

8. Louis Gonzales. 

9. Abuchar Hernianos. 



10 Rene Granger 

11. I.ouis M. Sanianiaria. 

12. Francisco De B Carasco. 

13. ' l.e Barrigona " — De La 

Torre Brothers. 



2^0 



EXPERIEiXCES IN CO LOME Li 



extreme. Two of them succeeded, however, in getting us and our 
luggage to the Hotel Anglais, run hy an English woman, where we 
secured a room. It contained four beds, a passage way between them, 
a washstand, and a broad balcony overlooking the street. The heat was 
really terrific and the sandy streets of the town shot it up into the 
rooms until it seemed almost unbearable. Our stout companion by 
this time had a splitting headache, so we put him to bed and began to 
take care of him. I secured for him a cup of tea, part of which he drank. 
Another got him a glass of lemonade, which seemed to do him more 
good than the tea, and then for the moment he felt so much better that 
we got a waiter to bring him up a light meal, after which, discovering 
that the hotel afiforded ice cream, he had a plate of that. Then he began 




CULUMKIAN SCENERY. 



to feel ill again : indeed. I think he would have refunded all he had eaten 
had I not shown him the bill, which was itemized as follows: 

Tea $10.00 

Lemonade 8*.oo 

Food 30.00 

Ice Cream i S-OO 

Total $8,^00 

Thrifty New Engiander that he was. he sul^lucd nature, and in a swelter 
of perspiration announced his intention of keeping what he had i)aid so 
hieh for. 



HXPiiiaiixci'S ix coLOMn/.i 



251 



( )iir r.ritish hostess did n"t have any tinu- In s])cnd upon us, and 
as I'jii;hsli was an unknown lani^iia.^' in the town, we were doubly for- 
tunate in niakiuo- the ac(|uaintanee of Juhus Oesar \'ishal, a coffee col- 
ored, barefooted urchin, brought u]) in Jamaica, who spoke En.c^lish flu- 
cntl\- and melodiously. His presence so cheered the sick one that he 
suddenly became convalescent, lost his headache, ^ot up and joined us 
while we did the town. Julius was indeed a treasure. He explained 
everythino- to us l)rieflv and (juaintly. and incidentally i^athered at his 
heels one-half of the populatiaon of the town, who cared not a whit for 
us but who wanted to hear him talk Enc^lish. 

That ni^ht we dined in the main dining- hall, but my ai)])etite was 




LUMKER AND WILII kUKBEK CAMP. 



Spoiled bv a sign on the wall which read: Ice cream, $15.00; sliced ham. 
$45.00; ox tongue, $100.00. 

After dinner we walked around in the cool of the evening, bought 
some Aztec pottery warranted to be genuine, and later retired to our 
room. It was then that we began to appreciate the deadly stillness of 
the tropics. The dog fight that started in the hallway ended in our 
room, as the combatants fell against the door and burst in. This, 
mingled with the evening song of several cats, the katydid chorus, and 
the constant whistling of the police patrol, soon lulled us to sleep; that 
is, accurately speaking, it lulled one of us, who, when he once lost 



252 



EXPERIENCES IN C0E0MBL4 



himself, had the whole trupical chorus l^eaten to a standstill. As an 
originator of strange gasps, groans, sobs, and strangling snorts, he out- 
classed anything that we had ever heard before, and while we did not 
sleep, we lay and listened, filled with awe, as in the presence of the 
emperor of all snorers. 

In the morning, desirous of showing our appreciation of what 
Julius had done for us, we asked him to name his own reward, and he 
decided that he would like a pair of shoes. We therefore purchased for 
him for thirty dollars a pair of stout leather shoes, and for fifteen dol- 
lars more a pair of stockings. Then loath to part with him we gave 
him money to purchase a ticket to ride down to Savinilla with us and 




MEDELLIN STREET SCENE. 



see us ofif. This he did in the thriftiest sort of fashion by buyino- a 
third class ticket, round trip, for ten dollars, and entering our first 
class car, calmly ]:)utting himself under our protection, ignoring the 
expostulations of the outraged conductor. We found incidentally that 
the fact that Julius went away with us caused a wave of indignation 
to run throughout the town, as they believed we had practically 
abducted him. A British friend, also, who had remained aboard the 
steamer, was very much surprised to see the treatment that we accorded 
Julius, and asked an explanation of it, in reply to which the Manufac- 
turer said, jocosely : 

"Him and me is partners.'' 



liXPHRIJiXCJiS JX COLOMBIA 253 

"1 am sure you arc, from your orammar," rcjilit'd the Ilriton, with 
a sarcastic emphasis llial was dchLilitful. 

W'c had diiinrr (ni the Ixiat, and alUT dinner I rendered an account 
of m\' stewardslii]). wliich tlie tii^ures show: 

Raih-uad tickets $222 

Carriage 80 

Three Icmnnadcs 24 

Tip 5 

Miscellaneous 150 

Hotel 845 

Ticket, Julius lo 

Total S1.336 



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MEDELLIN — HOME OF A WEALTHY CITIZEX. 



All this money for twenty-four hours of doul)tful pleasure ! I have 
forgotten whether I remarked that one dollar of Uncle Sam"s money was 
readily taken hy the Colombians for one hundred dollars of their own. 

The reason for the great depreciation in Colombian currency is 
said to be that twenty-five years ago Colombia coined both gold and 
silver which circulated at par, but the law^ allowed all debts to be paid 
in silver which was the cheaper, and in a very short time gold went out 
of use and liecame a subject for speculation rather than a circulating 
medium. 



254 



EXPERIENCES IN COEOMBIA 



We got away at eleven o'clock that night and on the following 
morning were out of sight of land, continuing so all day. As there were 
no ladies aboard, and as it was exceedingly hot, we lived in pajamas and 
came nearer to being comfortable than we had at any time for a week. 
It was told us incidentally during the day Ijy one of the officers that the 
report had gone abroad in 15arran(|uilla that the P*resident of the United 
States had been assassinated — a report circulated probably by some one 
who was feeling sore about Panama. The matter furnished a dav"s 




THE WRITKK ( OX TUK KK.HT) AXII HIS COMPANIONS ilLJ XOVAGE. 

[The Iwy is Julius Caesar. I 



excitement, until the arrival of the next steamer confirmed its untruth- 
fulness. 

The followino- nioniing tound us at the entrance of the harl)or at 
Cartagena. We entered by the old Spanish forts, passing groves of palms, 
coming into a beautiful stretch of harbor, where fronting us lay the old 
walled city, built close to the water's edge, with a background of tree 
clad heights, a sight picturescpie and beautiful, and a wonderful con- 



r.xi'iii<ir.\ci:s i\ CO I A). \i HI. 



2; 



:)o 



trast to the Colmnhian towns \\c had just K-fi. Makini,^ fast to the 
pier, the steamer was at 1 nice surrounded h\ (hij^outs, in wliich natives 
with monkeys, ])arrots, coral, etc., tried to tempt money from the 
rehictant ])ockels of tlie passengers. ( lettiniL;- ashore we took a short 
railroad ride to the middle of the cit\ and hreakfasted at 
the Motel Americano. h'ven here there were few An^io-Saxons. 
Indeed, one of the storekeepers to whom we had letters of introduction 
said at that time that there were only seven .Americans, four Enj:jlish- 
men, and three ( lermans in ( "artasjena. The old cit\- was fascinatinir 





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in the extreme, and we spent every moment tliat wc could sjjare in view- 
ing the walls, the cathedral, the fortifications, and the |)uhlic huildings. 
\\'e also went up against a native manufacturer of Panama hats, and 
each hought several of them. Incidentall}-, of course, we looked for 
ruhher, hut found that there was very little in town. Indeed, few knew 
anything ahout ruhher an\- wav. either wild or cultivated. A young 
Philadelphian who went down with us reported that on his company's 
concession, which covered some two hundred sfjuare miles, the natives 
had cut down near!}- all the ruhher trees, and that that sort of work 
had followed throughout the whole of their district. 

It was a very fortunate accident that at this juncture hrought me 
in touch with Mr. Henry G. Granger, Ignited States consular agent at 
Ouihdo, Colomhia. and it is due to his instant good will that the fol- 
lowing record is here a]i]:)ended. 



2i;6 



EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 



Ouibclo, by the way, on the river Atrato, in western Colombia, is 
a town of some commercial importance in that region, as well as a 
political center, being the residence of the prefect of one of the provinces. 
The term, "the Choco," mentioned by Mr. Granger, is a legacy 
from the former days, when a province existed by that name, derived 
from an ancient Indian race called the Chocos. The region referred to 
now, however, forms a portion of the present department of Cauca. 
Mr. Granger's information follows : 

"Thirty years ago the production of wild rubber in the Choco 
amounted to several million pounds per year. The trees were cut down 
and bled to the branches. As the wild CastHloa here runs a free latc.v, 
it is gathered in kerosene cans, or holes in the ground, and is brought to 
market in solid cakes. Owing to the destruction of the trees, the 




•■LOAR MILL. 



output steadily fell off and the cakes became adulterated by earth and 
non-elastic saps mixed in to make weight, until the business became 
pretty well discredited, and relatively nonimportant. Then attention 
began to be called to small balls of rolled strips. cJiaca (pronounced 
chassa), brought in by Indians and occasional negroes, which were 
taken from cultivated trees by cutting the bark with machetes at inter- 
vals of a few inches, as far as a man could reach. The cultivated trees 
are called 'borroso' as they give a thick latex which runs but a short 
distance down the trunk, and is gathered, when dry, by tearing off the 
strips and rolling them into balls, or packing in boxes in which case they 
drv in the form of the receptacle. 

"Practically all lra\'eling in the Choco is done by water, and soon 



EXl'liKlliSCl^S IN COLOMBIA 



257 



canoes be.ijan to arrive bring^ing only chaza, as this class of rubber, in 
view of the superior i)rice it l)rought in the foreign markets, was paid 
for at nuich liigher rates than the ordinary cakes. This stinudated the 
negroes, and about nine or ten years ago they began to plant rubber, 
until toda\. of the estimated population of eighty thousand negroes in 
the. Choc.i. he is the exception who has not, if not l)earing. at least a few 
dozen trees planted. And some of them have as high as f.nu" thousand 
trees in a plantation. 

Now. ih the rubber shipped from Choco, the cake is the exception 
and cJiarj.a the rule. 

The products of the Choco are shipped by the steamer Condor and 
a number of dory shaped schooners to Cartagena on the Atlantic coast, 
and bv dugouts to L'.ueuaventura on the Pacific. The only two vessels 




which have kept a record of their classified freight for the past year 
are the steamer Condor and the schooner Tnlia. In(|uiry from then- 
owners resulted in the statement that they carried, during this period, 
seventy-one and eighty tons of rubber respectively. As there are a 
number of other schooners which run to Ouil)do and are known to bring 
rubber, it is entirely reasonable to place their entire total at that of 
the Tnlia, or a general total to the port of Cartagena of two hundred 
and thirty-one tons per year. Sehor Luis Durier of the firm of Zuniga 
and Diaz, at present manager of their Cartagena house, who has had 
extended experience in the province of San Juan, says that unquestion- 
ably this region ships as much as the Atrato. But if it shipped far less 
w^e' would still have a product of over a ton a day. the great majority of 
which is cluiza, or the product of standing cultivated trees. 



258 



EXPERIENCES L\ COEOMBJA 



"It is an accepted fact that in five, or even four years, if well cared 
for, a rubber tree in the Choco will give a total annual product, of 
various cuttings or tappings, of a pound of cluiza, and that if care is 
taken not to injure the tree, this amount will annually increase. The 
commerce of the Choc(') is in the hands of the white race, who live in 
the principal towns. Many have gone into rul)l)cr ])lanting, and some 




CACAO. 



esteem their plantations more than their merchandising. Among the 
principal ones are : 

Juan C. Olier, Rio Sucio, Atrato, Colombia. 

Ciceron Angel, Ouibdo, Atrato, Colombia. 

Carlos Nicholas Ferrer, Qnibdo, Atrato, Colombia. 

Gonzalo Zuniga, Ouibdo, Atrato, Colombia. 

Meluk & Co., Quibdo, Atrato, Colombia. 

Delfino Diaz, Ouibdo, Atrato, Colombia. 

Manuel Rios, Rio Sucio, Atrato. Colombia. 

Luis Gonzales, Turbo, Atrato, Colombia. 

-Abuchar Hermanos. Sautata, Atrato, Colombia. 

Rene Granger, manager, Yankomba, Atrato. Colombia. 

Luis M. Santamara, manager. La Carolina. Uraba. Colombia. 

Francisco de 15. Carrasco. Istmina Choco, San Juan, Colombia. 
— not to mention the hundreds of small ])lantations of much larger 
^ggregate than the above, whose ])lanting will amount to probably about 
three hundred thousand trees, all of Castilloa exce])t at La Carolina, 



lixriiR/iixcr.s i\ colomhli 259 

which is tr\in,o- Maiiihot Ciia.zio-rii with seeds hroui;hl from Don Simon 
de la Torrcs's ranch La liarri^nna on the npper Magdalena, which 
in turn l)roui^lit scx'ds troni ( Cylon. 

"It is found tliat rul)her to tln-ive in the ( "lioc'' must l)e planted in 
the sun, and the accepted distance ajjart is four lo Uvv meters. llie 
construction of the C'oloml)ia (,'enlral Kailroad from the (lull of Lraha 
i^Darien) to the interior will o])en u]) a lot of rul)l)er land in addition 
to the areas alreadv accessihle. lianana raising, (piariz mininii^. and 
gold dredging are industries of great ])romist' here, hut none of them 
will surpass the ruhher ])lanting husiness if the jjresent tnthusiasm con- 
tinues, and jtidging from the outlook it will."" 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



A 1IA"I.\(, Tkll' '!'( 



A.M. MCA. 



(.■^N I'.IIVKI. TlIK SaKNIA — A WoUU Co.N'CEKNM N( , THK ISI.WI. <1K JaMAUA— [TS 
DlSKlXKKV. I'"(>K.MATI(>.\. A lOKH . 1 N KS . .\'o.M ENILATIKK. 1< A I N !■ A 1,1.. ( ioVERN M K.\T A.Ml 

Luc.xTioN— Ini-ou.mation from imk Dki'aktmext (i|- AiiKu ri.Tiki-: — A Vi.-it to 

C.ASTLETON CaRHENS— SOMETHINC .XlOlT THE RrilliKK I 'l<l Mii; Ell ThEHE .\.\|i THE 

Conditions .Atten'ihxc, It— Hope (i.\KiiE.\s— He\e.\ .\mp C.\stii.i.().\— '1'he .Mii.k 
Withe. 

JAM.\K"A — peaceful, fertile, rich in clieaj). free la!)i>r. and clo.se 
to the L'nited States throui^ii location and lani^uaLie. will some 
daw per]ia])s very .soon, hv an exporter of india-rubber leathered 
from annual crops. The beoinnino of ex])erimental j^lantini,^ may be 
even before this book goes to press — hence the story of the island, briefly 
told. 




KINGSTON STREET, KINGSTON. 



I had long wished to visit it and see for myself how it sized up 
as a place for planting rubber. This wish was intensified when Pro- 
fessor X. L. P.ritton. director of the Xew York Botanical Gardens, 
leased the English tropical experiment station at Chincona, and assured 
a future for American liotanical work in which rubber can hardly be 
ignored. I was more than glad, therefore, when m\ journeyings made 



264 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



it convenient for me to stop and have a look for myself. We left New 
York late in November on the Saniia, which was crowded; so much so 
that one of our party, planning for my comfort, wrote a few days prior 
to the start : 

"I have ordered the upper bunk in Stateroom Twenty-one made 
up especially for you, with a delicate blue counterpane, with little blue 
ribbon bows on the pillows which I think will match up with your beau- 
tiful complexion very well."* 

Newspapers, however, have special privileges, particularly when 
the Editor knows the agent of the line, so I was able to secure a roomy 
cabin bv mvself, but alas, without the delicate colored counterpane 
and ribbon. 



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(.'OUXTRV NEGROES. 



We got ofif in a snow squall, stopped for an hour in Gedney Chan- 
nel to ease up on a hot bearing, and then we put out to sea. It was not 
too rough to have the port holes open, although an occasional big wave 
slopped in. Our fellow passengers were a circus troupe on a two years* 
circuit around the world, via South American ports ; some mining and 
lumbermen bound for Colombia, and a miscellaneous lot of tourists. 
One of the lumbermen confessed to owning a small plantation of Cas- 
tilloa in Honduras, but was far from enthusiastic about it, as he could 
not keep the natives from stealing the rubber, poor though the yield 
was. 



rLYIXC Tk'/r TO JAMAICA 



26: 



As \vc ^(il furtluT sDUth it l)ccanK' waniKT wry rapidly, and S(jun 
sweaters and licav\- suits were lai<l aside. At iM)rtune Island we took a lot 
of Jamaica negroes aboard. an<l one evening they came to the promenade 
deck and gave a concert. It was very darkeyish, hut not half so musical 
as what the American ])lantatii)n negroes dn. ( )ff the coast of Cul)a 
the temperature on deck was eiglit\-eight degrees Fahrenheit, and 
in my cabin, ninety-eight. It is unnecessary to state where 1 spent 
most of my time. 

Now just a word concerning the place we were to visit. The island 
of Jamaica was discovered in 1494 h}' C"hristoi)her C'oluml)US, who was 




BOG WALK. 



very much taken by its beauty, and delighted with the politeness and 
good nature of the natives ; so much did he and his followers appreciate 
them that within a few years they had robbed them of all they had and 
practicallv exterminated them. The island, by the way, was not known 
as Jamaica in those days, but as Chab-makia, from two Indian words 
meaning wood and water, or in the thought of the Indian, "watered by 
shaded rivulets." The Spanish softened the word to Chamakia, and in 
turn the English made it Jamaica. 

In 1654 the English captured the island and began to colonize it. 
For manv vears thev sent their convicts there to work for the planters. 



266 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



but in i68c; tlie lal:)or situation was such that the government recognized 
slaver}-, and for a time all was peaceful. There were several revolts, 
however, on the part of the slaves, one occurring in 1760, when sixty 
planters were killed and half a million dollars" worth of property 
destroved. The rebels were finally sul)dued, and as a warning, one 
of the ringleaders was burned at the stake and two others were ]nit in 
iron cages and allowed to slowly starve to death. In 1834 the British 
government insisting that the slaves be freed, arranged an apprentice 
sAstem for the 311.000 slaves, by which laborers in the field were to 
work six vears more and then l)e free; while domestic laborers were 
to work four \ears more. The crown also paid thirty million dollars 





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EXTKAXCE TO lloPE BOT.\NICAL G.ARDENS. 

indemnitv to thr owners. After being freed, the slaves became luiglish 
subjects with all their rights, and it is only fair to the black race to 
sav that tht^\ have progressed remarkably : as well, perhaps, as whites 
would have done under the same circumstances. To show the propor- 
tion of whites and l)lacks on the island, figures from the last census are 
given as follows: Whites, 14,692; colored people, 121,955; blacks, 
488,^124; and 14,000 East Indians, Chinese, etc. 

ddie "Jamaica nigger" at home is not a very hard worker, but he is 
<>oo(l natured. self respecting, and in many cases thrifty. The island 
does not aft'ord enough work for him. an<l so the\- are to ])e found all 



/ hLVISC TKir TO J.lM.llCA 



267 



up and <l(i\vii llic roast nf ( vntral AiiKTica, wlirrr tlu-y arc very pmud 
of tlic fact that i1k'\ speak I'Ji.^lisli. and that \.W\ are free men. 

It is doubtless a surprise to many pe<j])le when tlicy discover how 
far s.iulh Jamaica really is. The island Hes directly ojjposite Cape 
Gracias a Dios on the Mos(|uito coast of XicaraL;ua. and it is so situ- 
ated that when the I'anama tana! is finished, it will he a mo.st impor- 
tant strateo-ic jjoint. The chief business of the island is j^lantin.^- su.o^ar. 
coffee, bananas, etc. The natives work as a rule from seven in the 
mornini; until four in the afternoon, with an hour out lor noon break- 
fast. I'hey r;u-elv work .Saturda\s. 'idle avera-e pa\ for field labor 
is fiftv cents a da\ . The island, althou.L;li only one hundred and torty- 




PORT ANTONIO. 



four miles long and forty-nine miles wide, has a climate varying from 
tropical to temperate. 

( )ne of the first questions that the prospective ruliber planter asks is, 
"What is the rainfall?" In no way can this be answered so comprehen- 
sively in the case of Jamaica as by the accompanying rain chart reproduced 
from "The Rainfall of Jamaica." l)y Maxwell Hall. M. A.. F. R. A. S.. F. 
R. M. S.. and i)ul)lished by the Institute of Jamaica. The mean rainfall 
for the whole island annually is sixty-six inches. The northeastern end. 
however, has an area where the rainfall is one hundred inches and over. 
shown bv the darkest portion of the chart. Xorthwest of 
this there is a tract where it is from seventy-five to ninety- 
five inches which is indicated by the next lighter shade. The 



268 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 




MAP SHOWING AVF.RACE RAINFALL OVER JAMAICA FOR ONE YEAv 

r 



A f/A'/XC I'Rir TO J.IM.IICA 



269 



western central ])<irti(in has a lari;e area tliat runs frtjui seventv- 
five to ninety-ti\e inches, while all alnn^ the coast and a strij) throiit^h 
the middle of the island, there is onl\- from f(jrt\- to fifty inches, and in 
places thirty to thirty-five. It will thus he seen that the ])lanter can 
get almost an\- rainfall his crops mav need. The island is of volcanic 
oriiijin and indeed, has heen, within the menKjry of man, visited hy 
severe eartlKjuakes. The formation is coral, white and yellow lime- 
stone, and in some places, traj) rock. In the ri\-er valle\s there are 
some (fuite rich alluvial areas where excellent cro])s are pr(jduced. 
There are man\ thousands of acres of crown lands not vet taken up, 
which are disposed of to settlers under e.xceedinja^lv favorahle terms. 




SUG.JiR C.'VNE FIELH 



A'ery early in the morning- we passed the old Spanish fort at 
Port Royal, entered the harhor, and at seven o'clock were tied up at 
the pier in Kingston. The wharf was crowded with ebony-colored 
"Englishmen, ■■ who bore themselves with much dignity. Pushing 
through them we made our way to the Myrtle Bank Hotel, where a 
good breakfast was discussed, and then we did the town ; that is, until 
the sun got a bit too hot for walking. As I wanted to get all the 
oi^cial information possilile. we looked up the Department of Agri- 
culture. In a short time we were furnished by the very capable secre- 
tarv with maps, rain charts, reports and practical information that told 
prettv nearlv all we wished to know. The ofificials were most prompt 



270 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



and polite, and really saved us days of hard work in what thev fur- 
nished us. 

The printed matter was good, but we wanted to see rubber grow- 
ing, and therefore took the nineteen-mile trip to Castleton Gardens. 
These gardens, established some forty years ago in what was supposed 
to be a sheltered valley, would, if more money were spent upon them, 
be of great value to the whole of the West Indies. The average tem- 
perature at the gardens is seventy-six degrees Fahrenheit, and the rain- 
fall, 114.07 inches, annually. The first ten miles of the journey was by 
excellent trolley cars and gave us a fine chance to view the country. 



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COCOANUT PALMS. 



The product most aljundant was, of course, the Ijanana, grown in l)ig 
and little lots for the United Fruit Company. At the end of the trolley 
line was the Constant Spring Hotel where we secured carriages for 
the rest of the journey. The way was hilly, l)ut the roads good, and 
the soil although not apparently rich, seemed, under the infiuence of 
the sun and the abundant rainfall, to lie verv productive. 

The gardens were in a measure a disa])pointment, as thev are not 
large, and have a neglected look, except in parts. This is due to lack 
of money and not lack of interest on the part of the caretakers, the 
whole approjiriation for the upkeep being fifteen dollars, gold, a week. 



A PLY IXC. IKir TO J. I M. lie A 



271 



Unfortunalc'K wIkmi llir first rral rxiJiTiiiK'tits in ruhhir culUire in 
Jamaica wcri' nndcrlakcn, the C'cara tree was selected as the l^est fitted 
for that chmatc. As far as can he learned, the tree hehaved exactly as 
it (lid in C'exlon. orew vioorously. hut as a Uitc.v ])r()ducer was a disap- 
pointment. 

There were several s])eciniens of Picus rlastiai and Landolphias 
as well as some fairlv <;-ood Castilloas. The ruhher trees that (jave the 
most ])romise, hmvever, were 1 1 c-ca Spniccaihi and the IJci'ca Brasili- 
ciisis. The Sl^niceana was i)arti nilarlN thrifty and i^ave out o^ood lafcx 
ahnndantlv. The ruhher from it was oi" a h'^hl yellow color and very 




CASTLETOX GARDENS. 



tough. The trees that we saw were only a renmant of a fine lot. most 
of which were destroyed l)y a hurricane that swept the island some 
little time hiefore. Our guide, h)- the way. who was a negro foreman 
at the garden, knew the hotanical names of all of the i)lants, and was 
indeed hetter posted than any white man that we saw out there. 

The elevation of the gardens is three hundred and seventy feet, 
and there seemed to he plenty of land thereahouts that could he utilized 
for Hcrca growing. As- lahor (negro) is very plentiful, and the daily 
wage fifty cents, and as in addition the laws are as good as anywhere 
in the North.— given no more hurricanes— it would look as u ruhher 



2^2 



A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



might he made to pay. The soil, as ah'eady remarked, is in this part of 
the island, poor, but royal palms, cocoanuts, ceiba trees, indeed all of 
the ordinary growths of the tropics were in evidence. In addition to 
this, a few miles took one up in the mountains to almost anv climate 
that one could choose, a valuable adjunct to a tropical plantation oper- 
ated by a white man. 

About six miles from Kingston are the Hope Gardens which are 
both for botanical specimens and great nurseries. Here are two hun- 




CASTILLOA ELASTICA IN HOPE GARDENS. (TREE 3 YEARS 
AND 6 MONTHS OLD). 



dred and twelve acres, the elevation being six hundred to seven hundred 
feet. The annual rainfall is 54.21 inches and the average temperature 
77.2° F. Of the rubber trees that are growing in these gardens onlv 
the Hevea and the CastiUoa are conspicuous. The former does not 
seem to be well at all, as it is spindling in its growth and far from 
vigorous. This is und()u])tcdlv due to the comparative dryness of the 
atmosphere. The CastiUoa, however, showed a fine growth, due no 
doubt to the fact that it was irrigated. If its vigorous growth means 



./ rD'/xc rKii> TO j.iM.iiL'.i 2^1 

added Uilcx. it iqicns tip a \\v\\ ticld t'nr tln' planlinj; of this tree wliere 
there is small rainfall hut plent\' of water for surface work. 

It uiay not he j^euerall) known, hut Jamaica has its own ruhhcr 
producer, a climhin|L; shruh known as the .Milk Withe. Its botanical 
name is l-orslcvon\a iJiirihiiinhi Ml. Don) and its stem fields a rubber 
that as loui;' a^^o as iS(;i was \-alued in h"n,niand at seventy-nine cents 
a pound. That does not mean necessariK' that the ])roduct is equal 
to fine I'ara. although it hroui^lit the I'ara ])rice, for the samples were 
\ery dry and showed hut little shrinkage. It is a fact, however, tliat 
it was a good grade of ruh1)er, and if the reports f)f the first ship])ers 
are acctn^ate, the latc.v is very rich in caoutchouc. 

To go hack a little, the ])lant is a climbing vine or liane, and grows 
only in the w^oods in the interior, chiefly in Manchester and St. Eliza- 
beth counties. The best manner of coagulating was found to l)e the 
simple ap])lication of heat. So far, it has never been exploited commer- 
cially, nor is it known whether or not the vine is susceptible of culti- 
vation. 

Reverting again to the Castilloa, there is said to be one ])lantation 
of some three thousand trees at the western end of the island, but it is 
carefullv guarded and information refused to all. 

I have not touched u])on the varied delights of Jamaica to the 
winter tourist, nor described the many minor adventures that three 
Americans ofif for a holiday arc sure to discover, for this, after all. is 
not a holiday tale. It is rather a suggestion to Americans and English 
that Jamaica is a good place in which to "get busy"" on the short crop 
proposition. 



RUBBER CULTURE IN HAWAII 




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Ki'inU'-.u cn/riK!'". i.\ Hawaii 

Wl''. criisse'il the I'acitic from N'ukoliama to IIoikiIuIu in iIk- L hiiiti 
and as jjasscn^vrs were few I had a roomy. lii.^h-sUidded 
eahin to myself. Against the advice of tlie steward I kept the 
port o])en, ])referrini;- to take a chance on drowning- to one on as])hyxia- 
tion. .Much water came in, ])ut it didn't touch me as 1 sle])t in the u])ijer 
l)unk, reached ])\ a Ladder, and m\- cliance proved well taken. When 
we cros.sed meridian 180 we had the somewhat unusual experience 
of havinj^- a dav forty-eight hours lono-. W'e were .given two sunrises, 
two sunsets, and six scjuare meals, all on hrida}'. and all on the fifth 
of the month. Mad it heen Thursday or Saturday i should not have 
cared, h.ut T hate fish, and that was certainly a lonc^ day. 

( )ur first sight of the Hawaiian g'roup came at evening- from the 
''heat lightning"" playing ovgr one of the outlying islands, and at day- 
break the next morning we v.'ere at Honolulu ( pronounced Honolult/ by 
the inhabitants). I sav at the place, Init not in it, for one of our steer- 
age crowd of Koreans, after troubling the ship's doctor by developing 
granulated eyelids, and threatening smallpox, came clown with a huge 
abscess in the arm pit that the quarantine of^cials diagnosed as bubonic. 
So we waited while they took a section of him ashore, only to return 
after a few hours with the glad news that it was sim])ly a respectable 
but angry boil. 

After this comforting assurance we went ashore and had tiffin at 
the elegant Alexander Young Hotel, went out to Wakaki Beach for surf 
riding, bought curios, took trolley and carriage rides, and in fact settled 
down to real hard work as sightseers. I am, however, going to put ofY 
the storv of mv own adventures and get right down to the story of 
Hawaii as it is and as it will be when it gets to be a rubber producer. 

To go back a little, the Sandwich islands were discovered in 1778 
by Captain Cook, whom the natives l)elieved to be edilile, and whom 
thev at once jiroceeded to get awa\- with. Some time in the present 
centur\- thev were re-discovered b\- William J. (iorham of the Gor- 
hani Rubber Company, of San h^rancisco. The natives did not cherish 
the illusions regarding him that they did toward the former discoverer 
and he got awav with fJicm. When 1 met him in Honolulu he had just 
sul)iugated everv trader in the grou]), and was planning to sell to a 
svndicate, enough of his wonderful steam hose to run a pii:>e line from 

279 



2So 



RUBBER CULTURE IN HAWAII 



the volcano of Kihuiea to Honolulu, to furnish steam for industrial 
purposes. 

The islands comprising the territory of Hawaii are seven large ones 
and quite a number of little ones. They are Hawaii, ^laui. Oahu, 
Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, and Xiihau. According to the census of 1900 




VIEWING YOUNG RUBBER. 

thev had 154,001 inhabitants. Of these islands, the most densely 
populated is that of Oahu, which has nearly 60,000, and it is on this 
island that the city of Honolulu is situated. The native population 
to-day is small, being less than one third of the total, the predominant races 
being the Chinese and the Japanese. Probably no country in the world offers 
a greater variety of ))eautiful scenerv than does this midocean territory 



RUBBER CULTURE IN lUUWli 



281 




282 



RUBBIiR Ct'LTURE IX H.UrAIf 



of ours, and not only is the scenery marvelous and the aral)le land rich 
and productive, but the climate is uniformlv the finest on earth. The 
very hottest day that the islands can furnish will not show a temperature of 
over 90° F. and it never gets colder than 55^. On the mountain tops 
they have cool nights, occasional frosts, and sometimes a little snow, 




SEVE-N YEAR "MANIHOT" NEAR NAHIKU LANDING. 

l)ut anywhere near the sea level there is beautiful Alav weather the \ear 
round. It is certainly a fisherman's, huntsman's, bicyclist's, automo- 
bilist's, or general tourist's paradise, and the American people are 
rapidly waking up to the fact. 

Sugar cane, of course, is the main cro]) in the Hawaiian islands. I 
have forgotten exactlv the number of acres but think it is about 200.000. 



Ri'HniiR ci'LTCKii ix n.in\in 



2.S3 




PLANTING ON NEWLY CLEARED LAND, NAHIKU PLAXTATIOX. 



284 RUBBER CULTURE IK HAWAII 

most of which are tilled by great corporations under their own planta- 
tion systems. There are, however, many small planters whose cane 
finds a ready market at the sugar mills. A great variety of tropical 
fruits such as pineapples, bananas, alligator pears, oranges, etc., are 
also grown and a good deal of cofifee is raised while the Chinese planter 
is quite a feature as a rice producer. 

It is claimed that there are at the present time something like 40,000 
acres of arable land on the islands, most of it belonging to the govern- 
ment. This may be easily acquired by those who contemplate any sort 
of planting proposition. Much of this land lies in sheltered valleys, and 
at the present time it is heavily wooded. The soil being volcanic, except 
on the coast plains which are of coral origin, the drainage is good and 
the land fertile. For certain growths, however, fertilizers are needed, 
and to those who contemplate taking up land in the territory of Hawaii 
it is strongly urged that they communicate with the special agent in 
charge of the Hawaiian Experiment Station at Honolulu, who is a 
gentleman of much experience and who is in a position to be very help- 
ful. Exactly what it would cost one to purchase land it is difficult to 
state. Good sugar land brings from $25 to $60 an acre, that is, when 
purchased from private individuals, but bought from the government 
it would cost from $10 to $15. These holdings are classified, and the 
commissioner at Honolulu can give any inquirer full information 
regarding what is open, conditions for the homestead lease system, right 
of purchase, leases, cash freeholds, and so on. 

I have dwelt at some length upon this for the reason that now that 
rubber culture has made a beginning in the Sandwich Islands, and par- 
ticularly as these islands are now making real progress, many faces will 
turn towards this Pacific possession of ours, and much agricultural 
development will result. Tt is to be hoped that a large part of this, or at 
least a fair proportion of it, will be along the line of rubber cultivation. 
Indeed it wouldn't hurt the writer's feelings a bit if the thousands of 
acres devoted to the luxury, sugar, were turned within the next five 
vears into the production of the necessity — rublier. 

To speak a little further about conditions for the man who wishes 
to plant rubber or anything else : It will be a satisfaction to many to 
know that there are no snakes or poisonous reptiles of any kind in all 
the islands. There are no such pestilences as are to be found in other 
tropical countries, and there isn't a wild beast anywhere there ; nor have 
they yet discovered malaria. Of course there are certain drawbacks. 
While there are a])i)arently no insects poisonous to man. there are many 



Ri'BBiiR cri/rrRii /.v n.iir.iii 



28= 




MAXIHOT i,l..\/iii\ii. .\AH1KL- PLAXTATIOX. {22 IXCH DIAM.j 



286 RUBBER CULTURE IN HAWAII 

agricultural pests. For example, the fruit industry suffers from scale 
and mealy bugs and sugar planters are ol)liged to fight the borer and 
all his kin. Then, too, there are cut worms, plant lice, Japanese rose 
beetles, and lots of others of the same sort. Whether there is anything 
that will be injurious to rul)ber no one knows yet, but it is (juite likely 
that some of the existing insects will adapt themselyes to the rubber 
situation as it develops. . 

My interest in rubber in Hawaii dates back to 1890. during the 
.reign of King Kalakua, with whom I had a most interesting correspon- 
dence. That is, I wrote him some very interesting letters and got no 
replies. 1 don't say specifically that that is why he lost his throne, but 
any student of history knows what has happened to the islands since I 
received the royal snub. 

The defunct ruler, however, went on record as believing that some- 
thing might be done with the Eicus rcligiosa and the Eiciis Indica which 
grow there in "prolific profusion. "'. He also noted that the bread fruit 
tree ( Arfocarpos iiicisa) produced a gum that for centuries had been 
used l:)y his subjects for waterproofing purposes, and which he believed 
might contain a percentage of rubber. With regard to the cultivation of 
rubber, he promised his royal sanction to anybody with money to spend 
to come there and spend it for rubber or anything else. 

Somewhere in 1900 the papers in the Far East claimed that the 
United States government was going at once to save $30,000,000 that it 
was then paying for imported rubber, by booming cultivation in Hawaii. 
The story was, that the nucleus was to be 100,000 rubber trees trans- 
planted from Brazil to the newly accjuiretl territory. Xothing, however, 
came of this. 

It was on the island of Maui that the first real start at rubber 
planting was made. Seven hundred and sixty square miles has Maui, 
and a most romantic island it is. It is really two mountains connected 
by a sandy isthmus, and is wonderfully varied l)oth in climate and 
scenery. For example, speaking of climate, one side of the island is 
dry and barren, but the other, the windward, is exceedingly fertile. 
This portion, which consists on the lower levels of picturesque valleys, 
has plenty of rain and rich soil, and it is here that the rubber is being 
planted, and Ceara (Maiiiliot) was the first tree selected. Rumor has 
it also that there was something like two hundred acres, part Hcvca 
and part Eicus, planted about the same time, but no record of this plant- 
ing is at present available. In 1905, however, there was formed the 
Nahiku Rul)ber Co., Limited, which took over the plantation containing 



288 RUBBER CULTURE IN HAWAII 

tlie Ceara trees planted some years before, which although few in 
number, had not only matured remarkably, but had some excellent 
rubber producers. This was rather remarkable, that is, the fact that the 
trees produced latex, as the rainfall was nearly two hundred and fifty inches, 
and with the experience of the Ceylon planters before them many 
thought that the trees would be barren. The reason for this difiference 
perhaps lies in the fact that although the rainfall is great the evapora- 
tion is very sudden so that the trees are led to expect a drought, which 
never comes. The same company are also importing seed of the Hevca 
from Ceylon and expect to plant that on a large scale . 

With regard to the yield of the Ceara trees in the Nahiku planta- 
tion, six small incisions produced an ounce of dry rubber, and this 
tapping may be repeated once a week through the year. 

Mr. jared G. Smith, who is in charge of the Hawaiian experiment 
Station, is authority for the statement that the Maiiihot trees at Xahiku 
landing have already produced a pound and a half of dry rubber a year. 
This assures a good profit. He also mentions the recent incorporation of 
two more planting companies l)Ut gives no particulars further than that 
the\- are already planting and the young trees showing marvelous 
growth. As several leading business men from Hawaii have recently 
been in Ceylon and the Straits studying rubber culture it is ({uite likely 
that future planting will be in part, at least, of the Hci'ca. It is worthy 
of note, that the principal rubber planting in Hawaii has been done by 
settlers from the United States. These are small beginnings, but begin- 
nings all the same. Just keep an eye on T. H. and see if in another 
decade she is not producing good rubber as well as furnishing seed for 
Formosa, the Philippines, Samoa, and other tropical countries. 




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